DETROIT (AP) – The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan will open a center this summer offering new therapies to help spinal cord injury patients regain some sensation and movement after years of paralysis.
The center, unlike any in the United States, also will evaluate hundreds of spinal cord patients for two experimental operations abroad and oversee their rehabilitation in Detroit.
“We hope the center gives people open access to the latest medicines and technologies” for spinal cord treatment, Dr. Steven Hinderer, Detroit Medical Center specialist in chief and director of the institute’s Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, told the Detroit Free Press.
The institute generated excitement last fall among the nation’s spinal cord community when it announced plans to screen patients for operations in China and Portugal.
The operations are giving hope of regaining Functional skills and movement to people with paralyzing spinal cord injuries.
The foreign procedures – not practiced in the United States – use cells taken from the olfactory bulb, above the ridge of the nose. The cells have been shown to regenerate other nerve cells. The cells are inserted near the spinal cord.
In China, the cells are taken from aborted fetuses. In Portugal, the cells come from the patient.
Both procedures are new and promising, but are not yet studied well enough to understand the benefits and risks of the operations. Fewer than 400 people have undergone the operations in the past three years.
