Stimulating paralyzed muscles with electricity and exercise offers new hope
  for injured 
Therapy may restore some function to people with SCI
From: AP - 01/30/2006
By: Lauran Neergaard

The Associated Press Newswires on January 30 reports on a new electrical
stimulation therapy that might help to restore some function to people with
spinal cord injuries, even if they were paralyzed long ago. Small but
tantalizing studies suggest that this intense rehab just might help. Patients
have sought this therapy since it was credited with helping the late
Christopher Reeve regain the ability to feel human touch and move just a
little, more than five years after a riding accident completely paralyzed the
"Superman" star.  

Now scientists are putting the approach to a rigorous test -- in a study with
children that may begin to answer whether this sweat equity truly fuels
recovery. The idea: Remaining nerves in the spine may be dormant, partially
recovered after the injury but essentially asleep as the brain can no longer
send "get moving" messages down to them. Using electricity to stimulate those
nerves and cause certain patterns of motion may teach them to carry signals
locally, maybe even route new connections around the injury.  

It's controversial. Doctors have long thought that if the body repairs itself
after a spinal cord injury - which does sometimes happen - any improvement
will occur in the first six months, and that there's no hope for further
recovery beyond about 18 months. The paralysis sparks a slide into declining
health from inactivity: infections, thinning and breaking bones, heart
disease as muscles wither and fat accumulates. "We have to maintain the
nervous system," contends Dr. John W. McDonald of Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger
Institute, Reeve's former doctor and the exercise therapy's leading
proponent. "Adding activity can optimize regeneration. What's good activity?
We don't know yet." But he's sending patients home, 200 so far, with special
exercise bicycles hooked up to functional electrical stimulation, or FES,
systems - sticky pads that deliver little electrical jolts to muscles
through the skin, stimulating their legs to push the pedals. He's persuading
insurance companies to pay for the $15,000 bikes by arguing that, if nothing
else, this aerobic-style, muscle-resistant exercise should lower medical
bills by keeping the paralyzed generally healthier.  

McDonald compared 48 paralyzed adults, half who pedaled an FES bike for at
least three hours a week and half who had no special care. The exercise
patients increased muscle strength, melted fat, and cut a complication called
spasticity, uncontrollable jerks that limit the recovery of those with some
movement, he told a neurology meeting last fall. "These benefits are so big
that if that was all they got, it was good enough to do this," McDonald says.
But 40 percent of the exercise group also regained some motor function over
three years compared with 4 percent of the "control" patients. It was modest
but important improvement: some regained bladder control; some regained
useful hand function; some moved from "prewalking," moving their legs while
being held up, to taking a few steps. 

Read the entire article at:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11103352/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/01/health/main1271471.shtml
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=400609
http://www.newsreview.info/article/20060201/FEATURES03/102010058/-1/FEATURES
http://www.thescizone.com/news/articles/589/1/Electrical-stimulation-gives-hope-to-paralyzed
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/health/20060130-1323-healthbeat-paralysis-exercise.html
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060214/HEALTH/602140306/1008

Links:
John W. McDonald, MD, PhD
http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_staff.jsp?pid=3843

At the interface: convergence of neural regeneration and neural prostheses for restoration of function
http://www.vard.org/jour/01/38/6/mcdon386.htm

Electric therapy offers hope to paralyzed
http://images.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/features/2_5_AU08_PARALYSIS_S1.htm

Superman's therapy fights paralysis
http://www.bgnews.com/media/paper883/news/2006/01/31/Nation/Supermans.Therapy.Fights.Paralysis-1544763.shtml?norewrite&sourcedomain=www.bgnews.com