Personal injury news

Rat's spinal injury repaired by scientists

A scientific breakthrough was announced today that could lead to very good news for future spinal injury sufferers. A New York scientist has managed to 'reconnect' damaged spinal cords in rats, using their own nerves.

The procedure involves taking a nerve that naturally leaves the spine above the back injury, disconnecting it from its original location, and using a protein 'glue' to attach it to the nerves below the injury. Results have shown that rats on whom this method was used regained a degree of communication between brain and rear limbs.

In these experiments, it was an abdominal nerve that was used in the 'rewiring'; other nerves were able to fill in the job that this had done. It is possible that the location of a person's spinal injury may make this procedure impossible, as the only nerves that could be moved are too important to detach. Professor Giorgio Terenghi, from the University of Manchester, explained "You don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul."

Despite this, scientists across America and the UK have described this as a remarkable and very promising result. However, it may still be much time before the process is available to human sufferers making a compensation claim for a spinal injury.