New Device Delivers Electric Pulses to Help Patients Regain Movement After Spinal Cord Injuries [Video]

An experimental medical device called Arc-Ex, which stimulates a patient’s spinal nerves with electric pulses, appeared to incrementally improve arm and hand function in a small trial of patients with tetraplegia—a condition in which one is partially or totally paralyzed from the neck down.

Sixty volunteers completed the trial, which was conducted by more than one dozen physicians and researchers in hospitals across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Published last week in the journal Nature Medicine, findings from this initial test offer hopeful signs: After treatment, 43 people showed improvements in arm and hand strength and function, while 52 people said their quality of life had improved.

Many of the volunteers had experienced little or no improvement in mobility for years and …