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Implantable device speeds up nerve repair

Scientists say a biodegradable gadget could help people recover from peripheral nerve injuries.
Scientists say a biodegradable gadget could help people recover from peripheral nerve injuries. Scientists say a biodegradable gadget could help people recover from peripheral nerve injuries.

An implantable gadget that can help the body repair damaged nerves has been developed by scientists.

The disc-shaped wireless device, about the size of a 5p coin, stimulates peripheral nerves with weak electric shocks.

In tests on injured rats, it quickened the regrowth of nerves in the legs leading to the recovery of muscle strength.

The biodegradable device is designed to dissolve away and be completely absorbed into the body after two weeks.

Scientists believe it could help thousands of people affected by numbness, tingling and weakness caused by sports injuries, accidents, or even too much typing or texting.

Dr Wilson Ray, who co-led the research at the University of Washington, US, said: “We know that electrical stimulation during surgery helps, but once the surgery is over, the window for intervening is closed.

“With this device, we’ve shown that electrical stimulation given on a scheduled basis can further enhance nerve recovery.”

Unlike their counterparts in the brain and spinal cord, peripheral nerves running through the arms, legs and torso can regenerate after injury.

Electrical stimulation triggers the release of growth-promoting proteins that help the neurons regrow faster and more completely.

Most people with peripheral nerve damage are offered painkillers, physical therapy, and in extreme cases, surgery.

The new device, described in the journal Nature Medicine, is powered wirelessly by a transmitter outside the body.

Professor John Rogers, from Northwestern University, Chicago, said: “These platforms represent the first examples of a ‘bioelectronic medicine’ – engineered systems that provide active, therapeutic function in a programmable, dosed format and then naturally disappear into the body, without a trace.

“In the case reported here, we built bioresorbable electronic devices that support unique function relevant to recovery from damage to a peripheral nerve, via electrical stimulation at select time points during the healing process.”

The scientists studied rats with injured sciatic nerves, which send signals up and down the legs and control the hamstrings and muscles of the lower legs and feet.