Otago team’s stroke recovery solution a first
AUCKLAND: A Dunedin neuroscientist has discovered a new way to help people recover from a stroke, by implanting an electrode into the undamaged side of the brain.
In a worldfirst, Prof John Reynolds and his team at the University of Otago have gone against traditional thinking, targeting the healthy side of the brain, rather than the area around the stroke, with electrical stimulation.
‘‘Putting an electrode in the healthy side of the brain when someone has a stroke on the other side is really not a conventional thing to do,’’ Prof Reynolds said.
‘‘We are potentially putting something that could be risky on the good side.’’
Studies show a third of the 9000 people who have a stroke each year will never regain full movement.
Prof Reynolds theorised that the healthy side of the brain was overcompensating for the damaged side, and inhibiting its recovery.
But to test his theory, he needed the help of the only man in the world with a patent for the technology — pioneering Belgian neurosurgeon Prof Dirk De Ridder, of the Otago surgical sciences department.
He had also tried to treat the damaged part of the brain, without success, Prof De Ridder said.
‘‘So when John came up with this new idea to treat the healthy part in order to influence the diseased part, I thought it was a brilliant idea,’’ he said.
Together, they developed a novel device, and with funding from the Ageing Well National Science Challenge, were able to put it to the test.
During surgery, Prof De Ridder places an electrode over the brain’s motor cortex, which controls movement.
A wire is tunnelled under the skin to the chest, where a stimulator is implanted — similar to a pacemaker.
‘‘From a surgical point of view, it’s very safe,’’ he said.
Two men volunteered to trial the device, including 61yearold Paul RobertstonLinch.
Four years ago he had a stroke at work, which initially robbed him of his speech, and all movement down his right side.
For Mr RobertstonLinch, the treatment has been lifechanging.
‘‘I couldn’t hold my toothbrush when I came here.
‘‘Now I can hold it and get it up to my face, I can open and close the door. It’s fantastic.’’
The Otago University team now hopes to secure more funding so a bigger trial can go ahead, which it is hoped will lead to this technology being widely used to treat stroke patients. — Aotearoa Science Agency