By foot and wheelchair, more than 155,000 participants took off on a simultaneous start around the world to raise money for spinal cord research. In the cold and damp pre-dawn hours, some 1,600 racers waited for the starting gun. When it sounded, they took off down the Santa Clarita, Calif., streets in a chase-style race. The crowd of nearly 2,000 runners and wheelchair participants was a respectable showing for any charity event. But these racers were joined by 155,000 others who took off at the same moment in 57 other countries around the planet. The fourth-annual Wings For Life World Runwas a resounding success, with a record number of participants and more than $7.1 million raised for spinal cord research. Launched in 2014, the Red Bull-sponsored event is a unique format. The globalchase drives an urgency and excitement among participants that sets it apart from most running events. Moreover, Red Bull donates 100-percent of entry fees to the Wings For Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation. It has since raised more than $23 million toward advances in spinal cord injury treatment. The race has grown each year, both for its charitable endeavor and its unique style. A half-hour following a mass … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (NVIV)today announced that a new patient has been enrolled into The INSPIRE Study (InVivo Study of Probable Benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold for Safety and Neurologic Recovery in Subjects with Complete Thoracic AIS A Spinal Cord Injury) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. Jason J. Chang, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery and co-study investigator, performed the surgery and implantation approximately 77 hours after the injury occurred. Mark Perrin, InVivos Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, said, We were pleased to hear that the procedure was a success and that the patient is doing well. We now have 15 patients enrolled and in follow up, and we look forward to completing enrollment in the INSPIRE study. For more information on the INSPIRE study, please visit the companys ClinicalTrials.gov registration site: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT02138110 About the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold Implant Following acute spinal cord injury, surgical implantation of the biodegradable Neuro-Spinal Scaffold within the decompressed and debrided injury epicenter is intended to support appositional healing, thereby reducing post-traumatic cavity formation, sparing white matter, and allowing neural regeneration across the healed wound epicenter. The Neuro-Spinal Scaffold, an investigational device, has received a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) … Continue reading →

A young man in Tunisia who was in a high-speed crash suffered a broken neck in an injury doctors call a "hangman's fracture" yet recovered with no lingering problems, according to a recent report of the man's case. A "hangman's fracture" refers to a neck injury that occurs when a person's neck snaps backwards, as it would during a hanging. And though the name refers to an act that's far less common today than it once was, the injury itself is not incredibly rare: Dr. Anis Khelifi, who was an orthopedic surgeon at the Kassab Orthopedic Institute in Tunisia when he treated the patient, said he's seen this type of fracture twice. [Here's a Giant List of the Strangest Medical Cases We've Covered] The fracture occurs in the second cervical vertebra (in other words, the second-from-the-top vertebra of the spine), and is the second most common type of fracture for this vertebra, Khelifi told Live Science. After the car crash, which took place in August 2012, the 25-year-old man came to the emergency room in severe pain, according to the brief report of the man's case, which was published today (May 3) in The New England Journal of Medicine. The … Continue reading →