U of M, Hennepin Healthcare study gives hope to those told they would never walk again

“That’s the lead, where it contacts the spinal cord,” explained Dr. Uzma Samadani, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery University of Minnesota Medical School and Neurosurgeon with Hennepin Healthcare.

Samadani described how surgically implanted electrodes along the spinal cord are connected to a battery pack. Software stimulates the nerves that go down to muscles in the legs. So far, six out of seven spinal cord injury patients that doctors have operated on have seen movement.