, had previously allow a paraplegic patient to walk again, a breakthrough that was published in the scientific journalBut this is the first time it's being used for"upper extremity function," Onward, the Dutch company behind it, said Wednesday.
"The mobility of the arm is more complex," surgeon Jocelyne Bloch, who carried out the implantation procedures, told AFP. Though walking comes with its own challenges—notably balance—"the musculature of the hand is quite fine, with many different small muscles activated at the same time for certain movements," she said.after a fall. Two operations were carried out last month at the Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.implant, which was developed by the French group CEA-Clinatec and measures a few centimeters in diameter.
In the second, surgeons placed a stimulator roughly the size of a credit card developed by Onward inside the patient's abdomen, and connected it through electrodes to the top of his spinal column.