Spinal injury
Over 100 patients with spinal conditions attended a community assessment day aimed at improving ongoing health and wellbeing ahead of future appointments and treatment. The Spinal Community Assessment Day is a collaborative pilot between The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, the Spinal Clinical Network, Everton in the Community and local community services, aimed at improving [...]
Researchers have grown key brain cells linked to MND and damaged in spinal injuries, opening a path to better disease models and regenerative therapies. The findings lay foundations for disease models and potentially regenerative treatments for conditions including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most common form of motor neurone disease, and spinal cord injury. Corticospinal [...]
A new Irish study reports a sharp rise in nitrous oxide spinal cord damage among young people. The gas, commonly known as laughing gas, is legal for industrial and catering use. Youth workers and community groups say children and young people increasingly inhale it from balloons. Research led by Seamus Looby, consultant neuroradiologist at Dublin’s [...]
Two people with spinal cord injuries have received BCI therapy, a brain-computer interface designed to restore movement. The procedures bring the total number of people to receive ONWARD Medical's investigational ARC-BCI system to seven. A brain-computer interface allows direct communication between the brain and external devices, translating brain signals into commands that can control movement. [...]
A brain cap and algorithms may one day let paralysed people trigger limb movement without surgery, researchers in Italy and Switzerland say. People with spinal cord injuries can lose some or all movement in their arms or legs. In many cases, the nerves in the limbs still work and movement signals are still produced. The [...]
The nervous system's own immune cells help protect the spinal cord from age-related damage, research suggests. The findings may contribute to new knowledge about how certain neurological diseases arise. Ageing affects the entire body, including the spinal cord, which transmits signals between the brain and the rest of the body. Researchers at Karolinska [...]
Specific DNA sequences control how cells in the nervous system respond to spinal cord injury, a study has found, potentially enabling more targeted treatments. When the central nervous system is damaged, many cells become reactive, changing their function and activating genes that protect and repair tissue. How this process is regulated has been unclear. Researchers [...]
A major new initiative to accelerate the delivery of pioneering new treatments for paralysis in the UK has been launched by the charity Spinal Research with a £1m fundraising campaign. The Spinal Research Recovery Alliance will bring together the spinal cord injured, researchers, clinicians and industry partners to get breakthrough therapies to paralysed people at [...]
A non-invasive spinal stimulation system controlled by hand movements enables people with paraplegia to regain stepping control. The technique uses electrical signals from hand muscles to trigger magnetic stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord, allowing patients to initiate and control leg movements. By performing rhythmic hand grips, participants with spinal cord injury were able to [...]
Our latest patient story we share Natalie’s experience of chronic pain after spinal cord injury following a workplace injury Natalie McCreith (39) from Southport was left with a life-changing spinal cord injury after a half-tonne steel beam fell on her in a workplace accident. Now left with chronic nerve pain, she discusses the impact on [...]
