For the first time, a surgery that actually bridged the gap in a fully severed spinal chord. The patient, a 38 yo Bulgarian male was paralyzed in a stabbing in 2010. The surgery used a nerve graft from the ankle to bridge the 8mm gap and olfactory nerve cells to help bridge the graft to the spinal chord. This is HUGE news, even if its still years away from being a regular treatment. There is a lot more work to go. That being said, for the first time ever, a person who was fully paralyzed for years is now able to walk (with braces, likely because of 4 years of atrophy) and has regained some feeling in his legs again.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/s...021-story.html
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