A team from the John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA have developed a tiny flexible and stretchable, spinal-cord stimulator that can be injected below the injury, without major surgery.
The lead researcher and study co-author, Assistant Professor Dingchang Lin, elaborated on the innovative concept in an interview with The News-Letter;
“This started from [the discovery] that we can implant into a new position that people [had] not recognized previously. We call this the ventrolateral site,” Lin said. “The team found that stimulation at this ventrolateral epidural surface measured much higher precision in terms of stimulation and a much lower current. This means you can use lower power to [achieve] the same [result].”
The research was published in Nano Letters (doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01806)