spinal cord injury

Brain signals revive paralyzed muscles in monkeys

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:27:35 -0500

NEW YORK -- Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury.

Brain Training for Spinal Cord Injury

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:45:04 -0500

Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle report success in their first attempts to harness the brain to treat paralysis in people with spinal cord injuries.

Brain signals revive paralyzed muscles in monkeys

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:00:16 -0500

NEW YORK (AP) -- Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury....

FDA OKs breathing device tested by Christopher Reeve

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:18:00 -0500

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a medical device tested about five years ago on actor Christopher Reeve. It allows some spinal cord injury patients to breathe for at least four hours a day without a mechanical ventilator.

New report shows locomotor training restores walking function in...

admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

(American Physical Therapy Association) A new report shows that a non-ambulatory (unable to walk or stand) child with a cervical spinal cord injury was able to restore basic walking function after intensive locomotor training. The case study, published in Physical Therapy (May 2008), the scientific journal of the American Physical Therapy Association, evaluated the effects of locomotor training in a 4 ½ year-old-boy, who had no ability to walk following a gunshot wound sixteen months earlier.

Spinal cord injury research hampered by animal models, says new ...

admin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

(Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) Research on traumatic spinal cord injuries is hampered by a reliance on animal experiments that dont accurately predict human outcomes, says a new study in the upcoming edition of the peer-reviewed journal Reviews in the Neurosciences. The review was written by scientists with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Triple threat: Young macho men with serious injuries often abuse...

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Men with serious injuries, such as traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, must deal with a range of emotions. If these men have strong traditional masculine ideas and abuse alcohol, it becomes even more difficult to help them heal and come to terms with their emotions and situations. A University of Missouri psychology researcher studied these challenging factors to find better ways to understand and treat men who fit this mold, such as the injured soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Promising new nanotechnology for spinal cord injury

admin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A spinal cord injury often leads to paralysis because the damaged nerve fibers can't grow past scar tissue around the injury. Researchers have shown that a nano-engineered gel injected into the spinal cord inhibits the formation of scar tissue and enables the nerve fibers to regenerate and grow up and down the spinal cord via a self-assembling scaffold. When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to walk.

Yale scientist honored for academic innovation and leadership

admin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:00:00 -0600

Erin Lavik, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Yale, was honored recently by the Connecticut Technology Council as one of their 2008 Women of Innovation. Lavik, who was cited for her academic innovation and leadership, focuses her research on developing new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of spinal cord injury and retinal degeneration.