Chemical brace

摘要

Treatments for patients with spinal cord injuries are scant. Doctors "kind of write off the spinal cord and then see what they can do to make life possible," laments neuroscientist James Fawcett, chairman of the Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair in the UK. And the problems these patients experience go far beyond an inability to move. In the absence of communication with the brain, for example, the bladder can empty spontaneously or get overfilled, increasing the risk of bladder and kidney infections. "The way in which bladder control is usually done now is pretty crude; it's paralysing the bladder with botulinum toxin and then intermittent catheterization," explains Fawcett. Catheterization itself comes with a risk of infections, but it is necessary to prevent the overfilling and spontaneous emptying of the bladder. In addition, people with spinal cord injuries often have lung infections and pressure sores on their skin.