Out of the country known for its rabid soccer fans, comes groundbreaking research offering hope in the treatment of paralyzing spinal cord injuries. Currently, there is no treatment for acute spinal cord injury.
The New Zealand Herald reported that doctors at Auckland University are close to producing a drug that can reduce inflammation and swelling. If doctors catch and treat the damage early enough after a spinal cord injury, a patient’s disability can decrease, or there may not be any disability at all, according to researchers.
Doctors already know that after a spinal cord injury there is an increase in communication between nerve cells. The communication is what spreads the damage to other parts of the body. The drug that researchers discovered cuts down on the harmful cell-to-cell communication, thereby decreasing the injury.
Ideally, the drug could mean increased mobility to those already confined to wheelchairs from spinal cord injuries. Current therapy allows some patients to perform small tasks such as moving their arms and hands. Doctors hope the new drug can allow patients to walk with some assistance and perform some activities that they could before their injuries.
The doctors submitted their findings for publication.
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