[Source:  Medical News Today]

With the help of an implanted device that delivers an electrical current to the lower spinal cord, four young men who have been paralyzed for years are now able to move their legs voluntarily.
All four men were completely unable to move their legs before being implanted with the device, which sends the lower spinal cord a continuous electrical current similar to signals transmitted by the brain.
The treatment, called epidural stimulation, delivers an electrical current of varying frequency and intensity to specific parts of the lumbosacral spinal cord, which is connected to dense bundles of nerve fibers that control movement in the hips, knees, ankles and toes.
Life scientists from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and the University of California-Los Angeles, both in the US, and the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in St. Petersburg, Russia, report the groundbreaking achievement in the journal Brain.
Lead author Claudia Angeli, an assistant professor at the University of Louisville’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center (KSCIRC), says two of the men “were diagnosed as motor and sensory complete injured with no chance of recovery at all,” and adds:
“Because of epidural stimulation, they can now voluntarily move their hips, ankles and toes. This is groundbreaking for the entire field and offers a new outlook that the spinal cord, even after a severe injury, has great potential for functional recovery.”
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