Breathing interruptions are some of the most serious complications after a person suffers a serious spinal cord injury. However, a group of neuroscientists have used a nerve graft treatment to address this issue. The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature. The tests were conducted on lab rats with successful results, and if the treatment can be transferred to humans with similar results, then doctors will be able to eliminate one of the more serious problems that can arise immediately after a spinal cord injury.

In order to understand how the treatment works, it's important to understand how a spinal cord injury affects breathing. Breathing functions are controlled by nerve cells, which, in turn, control specialized motor cells in the spinal cord. When the vertebrae are damaged at or above the C3, C-4 and C5 segments, it affects breathing. A person in a situation like this may need to be immediately placed on a ventilator. 

When the injury is below the C-5 level, the breathing interruptions are not as serious, but the person may still have difficulty breathing. The researchers used experimental techniques to treat the damage in the surgical area. They grafted a small piece of peripheral nerve from the victim’s limbs to the injury site.

The researchers now want to test this technique on rats again, before they decide to test on human volunteers.

Spinal cord injuries are some of the most life altering injuries that a person can suffer, and lead to varying degrees of loss of movement and mobility. According to the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke, up to 12,000 Americans suffer a spinal cord injury every year. Approximately 250,000 people currently live with spinal cord injury in the country. 

Most spinal cord injuries occur in serious auto accidents and motorcycle accidents. These accidents account for close to 38.5% of all spinal cord injuries. About a quarter of all spinal injuries are caused due to violence, gun shots and assault. The other main causes of spinal cord injuries are slip and fall accidents and sports-related injuries.

Spinal injuries are frequently seen in devastating car and truck accidents. These are some of the most debilitating injuries, leaving an individual with markedly reduced movement, sensation and mobility. There is no complete cure for spinal cord injury, which is why it is so encouraging when we have little signs of progress like this.

The man, Rob Summers had been left with a serious spinal cord injury that left him incapable of moving his legs, and controlling his bladder and bowel movements. Summers was chosen to participate in research at a Kentucky spinal research center. He underwent the surgical procedure to implant a device containing 16 electrodes in his spine just below the damaged area. When the device is switched on, it excites the damaged nerves of the spine, delivering signals from the leg muscles, and helping a person move his toes, feet and legs. 

Summers can now stand without aid and take a few steps on his own, although the day when spinal cord injury patients will be able to walk about independently is quite far off. However, the fact that there has been this much progress is extremely encouraging to Atlanta personal injury lawyers and millions of people in the United States who suffer from spinal cord injuries.

The trials will be conducted in Switzerland. Researchers believe that the country offers greater patient referral networks and a higher expertise of professionals. However, that isn't only how these stem cell trials will differ from others. These are believed to be the first trials that will focus on treatment of older or chronic spinal cord injuries.

Earlier this year, another company, Geron Corporation announced the world's first embryonic stem cell clinical trials into the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Those trials are partly being conducted in Atlanta. However, those trials will only focus on new spinal cord injuries. These Swiss trials will focus on injuries that are between three and 12 months older, and if these treatments are successful, it will offer hope to the more than 2 million spinal cord injury patients in the US, who currently live with these injuries. The Swiss trial researchers believe that older spinal cord injuries have been ignored, and too much of the research is focused on fresh injuries.

Spinal cord injuries can result in quadriplegia or paraplegia, and both of these conditions can dramatically alter a person's living conditions. These conditions are a result of injury to the spine during a high-impact accident like a passenger vehicle-truck accident.

The Atlanta car accident lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent injured victims of auto accidents across Georgia.

It’s not just wireless companies and commercial television stations that are in the way of a revolutionary new technology that could provide a cure for spinal cord injury. The promoters of the cure are also up against the military. However, that's not stopping the nonprofit Alfred Mann Foundation from continuing its efforts towards a treatment.

The treatment involves the use of coordinated electrical impulses from implanted devices. These impulses stimulate the muscles, thereby allowing the limbs of the spinal cord injury victim to move. Initial tests have shown dramatic results in spinal cord injury victims. Some of them have not just been able to regain movement, but are now back to doing the things they did and enjoyed before they suffered the injury. Buoyed by these successes, the Alfred Mann Foundation is pushing for wider use of this technology.

There's one major catch, however. In order for the signals to be transmitted properly within the human body, the technology requires electromagnetic spectrum. The four bands of recommended bandwidth that are ideally suited for the technology are currently occupied by the military, commercial land mobile radio and emergency mobile radio. None of these entities are keen to share their bandwidth with the application of a medical device.

They have their reasons for this refusal. According to them, there is just too much risk to a patient with the implanted device, if he's too close to a high-power transmission. For instance, if a person with the implanted device is around whenever there is a live television broadcast using up bandwidth, a high-power transmission could cause havoc with the device. The foundation insists that this isn't a problem, and that the device can resist dangerous interference.

The Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are caught in the middle of the tussle. Obviously, this isn't an easy decision for them to make. There are also some still unidentified risks associated with allowing the technology to use the bandwidth. However, if some way is found out of this impasse, then thousands of spinal cord injury victims across Georgia will be able to regain movement again. That should be enough reason for accident lawyers in Atlanta  to support progress on this matter.

American and Japanese researchers have found a potential treatment for spinal cord injury from an unexpected source-mice hair. This week, researchers unveiled their new discovery at the World Congress for Hair Research in Australia.

Researchers stumbled on this astounding discovery by accident. They were examining the skin of mice while researching cancer treatments at the Anti Cancer research lab in San Diego in California. They discovered that mice hair contained cells that, if placed on damaged nerves, could repair these nerves. Researchers used the mice hair to rejoin damaged nerves in mice with a spinal injury. At the conference, a video was shown of a mouse with a spinal injury, recuperating almost completely after being treated with hair cells.

There is enough reason to hope that this treatment can be duplicated in human beings too. Human hair has been found to contain similar cells that have equally beneficial results when used on mice with spinal cord injuries. Researchers believe that chances are high that a damaged human nerve will also respond well to the same kind of hair cell treatment.

This is likely to be very encouraging news to the more than 250,000 Americans living with spinal cord injury in the US. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, every day there are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 new spinal cord injuries occurring in the country. Of these, about 38.5% occur during car accidents. More than 55% of all spinal cord injury victims are between 16 and 30 years of age. That means a major section of the productive population in the country, suffers from an injury that severely limits their ability to contribute to society and enjoy their lives.

As Atlanta accident lawyers, we regularly monitor research into treatment programs for spinal cord injuries, brain injuries as well as stem cell therapies for other catastrophic injuries. It seems like very often, there are potential “discoveries” in spinal cord injury research that very often,, turn out to be duds. This mice hair therapy however, seems to be promising not just because of the dramatic results seen in the mice, but also because human hair cells have also been used with success in treating mice with spinal cord injuries.