Neuroscientists restore significant bladder control to 5 men with spinal cord injuries

More than 80 percent of the 250,000 Americans living with a spinal cord injury lose the ability to urinate voluntarily after their injury. According to a2012 study, the desire to regain bladder control outranks even their wish to walk again.In a study of five men whose injuries occurred five to 13 years ago, UCLA neuroscientists stimulated the lower spinal cord through the skin with a magnetic device placed at the lumbar spine. The research is the first to show that the technique enables people with spinal cord injuries to recover significant bladder control for up to four weeks between treatments. The findings are published today in Scientific Reports.The treatment improved the men ’s quality of life by an average of 60 percent (according to a questionnaire they completed before and after the study). And if the technique is replicable on other people, it could help reduce the social stigma and health risks linked to frequent catheter use.“We were excited to see a positive effect in all five patients after only four sessions of mild magnetic stimulation,” saidDr. Daniel Lu, the study ’s principal investigator and an associate professor ofneurosurgery at theDavid Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The benefit persisted from two to four weeks, suggesting that the spinal cord’s neural circuitry retains a ‘memory’ of the treatment.”People with spinal cord injuries must slide a narrow tube called a catheter into the bladder several times a day to drain urine. Pa...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news