Patients with spinal cord injuries report that in addition to paralysis the lack of bladder control is one of the most troubling issues. At University of California Los Angeles, researchers have shown that they were able to restore significant bladder control to five men that suffered through spinal cord injuries years prior to treatment.
The researchers used transcutaneous magnetic spinal cord stimulation as their technique, delivering pulses of focused magnetic fields to the site of the injuries. Similar technology was just cleared in the United States to treat obsessive compulsive disorder.
The magnetic stimulation seems to be effective because most spinal cord injuries are not complete, and there’s still some connectivity left between the spine and the brain. According to the researchers, the magnetic impulses seem to amplifying these signals while training the remaining neural circuits to react to these signals.
In the study, reported on in journal Scientific Reports, the five men received 15 minutes of magnetic therapy once a week for four months. While nothing seemed to change at first, after about a month the men began being able to control their bladders on their own. In one particularly encouraging case, a man who was injured thirteen years prior was able to get off the catheter entirely, peeing on his own even four weeks following the last therapy session. Moreover, the average bladder capacity of the men nearly doubled and they voluntarily urinated on average 1120 cubic centimeters of fluid a day.
Study in Scientific Reports: A Proof-of-Concept Study of Transcutaneous Magnetic Spinal Cord Stimulation for Neurogenic Bladder…
Via: UCLA…