Nerve rewiring helps paralysed man move hand

A paralysed man has regained limited use of his hand after pioneering surgery to bypass damage to his spinal cord.

His injury meant his brain could not "talk" to his hand, meaning all control was lost.

Surgeons at the Washington University School of Medicine re-wired his nerves to build a new route between hand and brain.

He can now feed himself and can just about write.

The 71-year-old man was involved in a car accident in June 2008. His spinal cord was damaged at the base of the neck and he was unable to walk.

While he could still move his arms, he had lost the ability to pinch or grip with either of his hands.

Rewiring
The nerves in the hand were not damaged, they had just lost the signal from the brain which told them what to do.

However, the brain could still give instructions to the upper arm.

The operation, described in the Journal of Neurosurgery, rewired the nerves in the arm to build a new route from brain to hand. One of the nerves leading to a muscle was taken and attached to the anterior interosseous nerve, which goes to the hand.

Ida Fox, an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Washington University, told the BBC: "The circuit [in the hand] is intact, but no longer connected to the brain.


"What we do is take that circuit and restore the connection to the brain."

She said it was a "really novel" and "refreshingly resourceful" way of restoring movement. However, she warned this would never restore normal function. "That isn't going to happen," she said.