Someone has a stroke every 40 seconds in the U.S., resulting in death every 4 minutes. Stroke is the leading cause of disability from a medical condition. When it happens, blood clots or bleeds kill a part of the brain – it goes dark – and can no longer control part of the body. People stop being able to walk, see, talk, or control their hand or arm the way they once did. Although treatments exist, they only work within a short window from the start of a stroke. Rehab can restore some function, but improvements typically plateau in about 6 months.
Now, researchers at Jefferson have initiated a clinical trial using a brain implant and robotic brace to test a method that could one day offer hundreds of thousands of stroke patients with long-term disability a new option for better mobility.
“This is the first person ever with this very common type of stroke to be implanted with brain electrodes that send neuronal signals to an arm brace that then controls movement,” says principal investigator of the study Mijail Serruya, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University, who was part of the team that implanted the first human with a brain electrode 15 years ago. “This study serves as a proof of concept, a necessary bridge to future studies that would use fully implanted wireless electrodes to improve movement after stroke.”
