Nerve surgery restores movement in paralysed hands
Australian trial highlights the potential of a new approach.
Australian surgeons have restored arm and hand movement to patients with tetraplegia – paralysis of both upper and lower limbs – using a technique that connects healthy nerves with injured nerves.
Two years after surgery, and following intensive physical therapy, the patients were able to reach their arm out in front of them and open their hand to pick up and manipulate objects as well as propel their wheelchair and transfer into bed or a car.
They can now perform everyday tasks independently.
While it was only a small study, published in the journal The Lancet, the researchers have seen enough to suggest nerve transfers could achieve similar functional improvements to traditional tendon transfers – with some additional benefits.
In tendon transfer surgery on upper limbs, muscles that still work but are designed for another function are surgically re-sited to do the work of muscles that are paralysed.
Nerve transfers allow direct reanimation of the paralysed muscle itself. They also can reanimate more than one muscle at a time, have a shorter period of immobilisation after surgery, and avoid the technical problems associated with tendon transfer surgery.
“We believe that nerve transfer surgery offers an exciting new option, offering individuals with paralysis the possibility of regaining arm and hand functions to perform everyday tasks, and giving them greater independence and the ability to participate more easily in family and work life,” says research leader Natasha van Zyl, from Austin Health in Melbourne.