Spinal cord stimulation is a treatment normally associated with back pain. The treatment offers some measure of relief when more traditional treatments do not work. But now, based on the data from a recently published study, there seems to be another valid use for spinal cord stimulation: treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was extremely small scale. It enrolled just three patients. Nonetheless, all three showed noticeable improvements following spinal cord stimulation. The improvements were enough to warrant further research into the possibilities spinal cord stimulation brings to the table.
More About SMA
SMA is a rare genetic disorder that affects neuromuscular function. It is characterized by a gradual loss of the motor neurons in the spinal cord. As neurons are lost, muscle weakness and atrophy follow.
The condition is directly due to mutations in a particular gene responsible for producing a protein the body relies on for motor neuron function. It can strike at any age. SMA severity is determined based on symptoms and measured motor skills.
In cases of prenatal onset, SMA tends to prove fatal within a few weeks of birth. The older the person is prior to developing the condition, the less damage it does. Still, being able to restore strength and function is a good thing at any age. Now it appears that spinal cord stimulation might be the ticket for some patients.
More About the Study
Getting back to the study, researchers took the approach of stimulating the nervous system to complement “existing neuroprotective treatments with a new approach that reverses nerve cell dysfunction.” In other words, they looked at spinal cord stimulation as a way to protect against further muscle weakness and atrophy by using existing neural pathways to preserve cell health.
Each of the three study participants received spinal cord stimulation three times per week, four hours per session, for a whole month. All showed “improved motor function, reduced fatigue and improved strength and walking.”
Researchers concluded that the patients experienced an average 40% improvement in the length of their steps along with a 25-minute improvement in walking time and a 180% improvement in muscle strength. To an SMA patient requiring some sort of assistive device to maintain mobility, the numbers represent a drastic improvement. Imagine going from being barely able to walk to being able to walk for almost half an hour.
More About Spinal Cord Stimulation
As for why spinal cord stimulations seemed to help the three patients, researchers still have plenty to learn. But we can apply what we already know about the treatment to make some educated guesses.
Lone Star Pain Medicine in Weatherford, TX relies on spinal cord stimulation to relieve chronic back pain. They explain that the treatment interrupts the pain signals normally sent to the brain. Because the signals never reach their intended destination, the patient does not experience the same level of pain. Instead, patients tend to experience a tingling sensation.
In other words, the electrical impulses sent by the stimulating device reach the brain instead of the body’s natural pain signals. Applying the same thinking to SMA treatments, electrical signals from the stimulator replace the natural signals that lead to the destruction of neuroprotective cells. If those signals cannot reach their intended destination, the damage is halted.
Further research is needed to confirm this latest study’s findings. And of course, new studies will have to be much larger in scope. But if they prove that spinal cord stimulation does work, how SMA is treated will be revolutionized.
