An implant developed as a result of research carried out in Switzerland considerably improves the living conditions of people with spinal cord injuries, say the doctors behind this innovation. It remedies the chronic hypotension from which these patients suffer. The lack of blood pressure regulation is one of the invisible consequences of paralysis, explain neuroscience professor Grégoire Courtine of the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at the Lausanne University Hospital who also teaches at the University of Lausanne. In people with a spinal cord injury, the signal from the brain that is supposed to constrict the blood vessels no longer gets through, because the neurons that need to be activated there are no longer activated. The new device enables contact to be re-established by stimulating the nerve cells responsible for managing tension. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox To develop such an implant, the ...
