A patient with Parkinson’s disease regained his walk thanks to the ARC-IM spinal implant

A patient with Parkinson’s disease was able to walk again without impairment thanks to a spinal implant. It restores normal signal transmission between the spinal cord and leg muscles, reports TechCrunch.

The study was conducted by a Swiss team led by Onward. It was founded at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland.

The implant is called ARC-IM, and its principle of operation is described by Reuters. The device includes an electrode field on the spinal cord and a generator of electrical impulses under the abdominal skin.

The first patient to receive the implant is Mark. He had noticeable problems with walking before. It was especially noticeable when he got into an elevator or went up the stairs. But now he moves without any obvious impairment.

“Getting into an elevator… sounds simple. For me, before, it was impossible. I was skating, I was freezing,” Marc said (translated from French) in a video from NeuroRestore showing the efficacy of the device. “Now I’m going in quietly. I have no problem. It lets me walk better, lets me do five kilometers without stopping.”

The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Medicine. Next year, the team plans to conduct clinical trials on six new patients.