For the first time in the world: recovery for patients living plants

A car accident in 20 years of age caused a French man to live plants for 15 years, but he was beginning to show signs of waking up by a miracle .

That miracle is a vagus nerve stimulator that is implanted by the doctors in the patient's chest. This year, 35 years old, for the first time in a long time, an unhappy man has a ray of hope to restore his consciousness.

The case of the French patient is described in detail in Current Biology magazine on September 25. Researchers believe this result challenges long-term thinking, which suggests that cases of consciousness disorders that last more than 12 months are irreversible.

Breakthrough

Doctor - neurologist Angela Sirigu is one of the authors of the study published in Current Biology. She worked at the Marc Jeannerod Institute for Cognitive Science in Lyon, France.

Sirigu and colleagues decided to test vagus nerve stimulation techniques (VNS - Vagus Nerve Stimulation) to restore awareness to French patients. Previously, this method was only used to help patients with epilepsy and depression.

Vagus - Latin means "wandering" - is the body's largest sympathetic plant, controlling movement, feeling most of the organs in the chest and abdomen (heart, lungs, digestion, genital urinary).

The VNS technique is performed as follows: Doctors implant a device into the patient's chest and connect to the vagus nerve with a transmission line. Electromagnetic signals follow this nerve into the brain, transforming into impulses and moving on to other areas of the brain.

The vagus nerve stimulation activates a natural physiological mechanism of the body, explains Sirigu.

With the selection of a plant-living patient for 15 years, the team accepted the most difficult challenge to eliminate the "probabilistic" factor in case the method actually produced results.

And they were not disappointed. After only 1 month of continuous stimulation, the brain regions that control the concentration, movement . of the patient have increased markedly.

Nicholas Schiff, a neurologist at Weill Cornell / NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Center (USA), said the study showed a possible direction, a new technique and could be beneficial to some patients.

The photo describes the patient's brain activity before and after applying vagus nerve stimulation method (VNS) - (Photo: CNN).

Great potential of the brain

"The above result, along with the information we currently have, proves that the human brain, despite being in severe injury, still has a greater potential than what we know - Dr. Schiff explained - A person may lie in place for many years but still respond to drugs, devices and other things. "

In the United States, it is estimated that about 50,000 patients are in a vegetative state, and about 300,000 others are in a state of minimum awareness, Schiff said.

"We have known for a long time that we can do something for severe brain damage, but the infrastructure and equipment have not kept pace with science. What is missing is the source of investment in research. " - the expert explained.

Dr. James L. Bernat, a professor of neurology at Geisel School of Medicine (Dartmouth University), assessed the report on French patients as a "very interesting and exciting" case. He praised Sirigu's team for choosing a difficult case to test.

Many different types of injuries can cause human plant state, including brain injury, neuronal injury due to hypoxia and blood in heart attacks, meningitis .

Therefore, Dr. Bernat explained, more research is needed to find out which patients have the opportunity to recover thanks to the new method.

In addition, the new study will help clarify the mechanism of neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's) or cognitive impairment due to brain injury.