Neuroprosthetics of the upper extremity--clinical application in spinal cord injury and challenges for the future

Abstract

The complete restoration of movements lost due to a spinal cord injury (SCI) is the greatest hope of physicians, therapists and certainly of the patients themselves. Particularly, in patients with lesions of the cervical spinal cord every little improvement of missing or weak grasp function will result in a large gain in quality of life. Despite the fact that novel drugs for axonal regeneration in the spinal cord are in the phase of imminent human application, up to now, the only possibility of restoration of basic movements in SCI persons consists in the use of functional electrical stimulation (FES). While FES systems in the lower extremities for standing or walking have not reached widespread clinical acceptance yet, devices are available for demonstrable improvement of the grasp function. This applies to tetraplegic patients with stable, active shoulder function, but missing control of hand and fingers. Particularly, with the use of implantable systems a long-term stable, user-friendly application is possible. Most recent work aims at the development of minimally invasive, subminiature systems for individual functional support. The possibility of direct brain control of FES systems will extend the application of grasp neuroprostheses to patients with injuries of the highest cervical spinal cord.