Thirteen young adults who were paralysed in sporting or traffic accidents have had movement in their hands restored through pioneering nerve transfer surgery, enabling them to feed themselves, hold a drink, write and in some cases return to work. Nerve transfers are not new, she says, but had not been successful in spinal cord injuries. Ten of the patients had nerve transfers to one arm and tendon transplants in the other. These are people working for me.’“In his case it was life-saving, not just life-changing.”She and her team have now done about 160 nerve transfers. There are surgeons who could help at least some of them, says Van Zyl.

Source: The Guardian July 04, 2019 22:30 UTC