FIRST STEPS: Darek Fidyka walks with the aid of leg-braces and a walking frame at the Akron Neuro-Rehabilitation Center in Wroclaw, Poland. Photo: AFP A paralysed man has begun to walk again after pioneering surgery injected cells from his nasal cavity into his spine. How was this possible - and what does it mean for others with spinal injury? Kate Hagan stitches together the evidence. Darek Fidyka sounds as though he has been through a lot. How did he lose his ability to walk? A Bulgarian firefighter, Mr Fidyka's spinal cord was severed after he was repeatedly stabbed in the back during a knife attack in 2010. It left the 40-year-old paralysed from the chest down. Despite two years of intensive physiotherapy he had showed no sign of recovery. Why did scientists think he might be able to walk again? Scientists have long recognised the potential of particular cells in the olfactory bulb, at the top of the nasal cavity, to stimulate growth of nerve fibres. Called olfactory ensheathing cells, they act as pathway cells to enable nerve fibres in the olfactory system to be constantly renewed throughout a person's life, preserving the senses of smell and taste. The role … Continue reading →

London, Oct 26: A 38-year-old man who was paralysed from the chest down following a knife attack can now walk using a frame, following a pioneering cell transplantation treatment by surgeons in Poland. The technique involved using specialist cells from the nose, called olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), in the spinal cord. These allow the nerve cells that give us a sense of smell to grow back when they are damaged. The patient, Darek Fidyka, was paralysed after suffering stab wounds to the back in 2010, leaving an 8mm gap in his spinal cord. He described the ability to walk again using a frame as an incredible feeling, saying when you cant feel almost half your body, you are helpless, but when it starts coming back its as if you were born again. Its amazing to see how regeneration of the spinal cord, something that was thought impossible for many years, is becoming a reality, said Dr Pawel Tabakow, consultant neurosurgeon at Wroclaw University Hospital, Poland. Professor Geoff Raisman, Chair of Neural Regeneration at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Neurology, first discovered OECs in 1985 and successfully showed that they could be used to treat spinal injuries in rats … Continue reading →

FIRST STEPS: Darek Fidyka walks with the aid of leg-braces and a walking frame at the Akron Neuro-Rehabilitation Center in Wroclaw, Poland. Photo: AFP A paralysed man has begun to walk again after pioneering surgery injected cells from his nasal cavity into his spine. How was this possible - and what does it mean for others with spinal injury? Kate Hagan stitches together the evidence. Darek Fidyka sounds as though he has been through a lot. How did he lose his ability to walk? A Bulgarian firefighter, Mr Fidyka's spinal cord was severed after he was repeatedly stabbed in the back during a knife attack in 2010. It left the 40-year-old paralysed from the chest down. Despite two years of intensive physiotherapy he had showed no sign of recovery. Why did scientists think he might be able to walk again? Scientists have long recognised the potential of particular cells in the olfactory bulb, at the top of the nasal cavity, to stimulate growth of nerve fibres. Called olfactory ensheathing cells, they act as pathway cells to enable nerve fibres in the olfactory system to be constantly renewed throughout a person's life, preserving the senses of smell and taste. The role … Continue reading →