[(Title)]Spinal implant helps paralysed man walk again

Jered Chinnock, paralysed from the waist down five years ago, has become the first person to receive the electrical stimulation device.

五年前从腰部以下瘫痪的杰里德·钦诺克已经成为第一个接受电刺激装置的人。

It is not a cure - he can only walk with assistance and has not regained sensation in his legs - but during one session the 29-year-old walked far enough to cover the length of a football pitch.

这不是一种治疗方法——他只能在助手的帮助下行走，腿也没有恢复知觉——但是在一次训练中，这位29岁的球员走得足够远，足以覆盖整个足球场。

The device sends electricity to the spinal cord and enables neurons to receive the signal being given by Mr Chinnock's brain to stand or move his legs.

该装置向脊髓发送电能，使神经元能够接收钦诺克大脑发出的信号，从而能够站立或移动他的腿。

It was implanted in the epidural space - the outermost part of the spinal canal - below the injured area.

它被植入受伤区域下方的硬膜外空间——椎管的最外面部分。

The electrode connects to a pulse generator device under the skin of the man's abdomen and communicates wirelessly with an external controller.

电极连接到腹部皮肤下的脉冲发生器设备，并与外部控制器无线通信。

It was implanted after Mr Chinnock had completed 22 weeks of physical therapy in 2016. Dr Kendall Lee, from the Mayo Clinic, implanted the device.

在钦诺克先生于2016年完成了22周的物理治疗后，梅奥诊所的Kendall Lee博士为他植入了这一装置。

"What this is teaching us is that those networks of neurons below a spinal cord injury can still function after paralysis," said Dr Lee.

Lee博士说:“这告诉我们，脊髓损伤下的神经元网络在瘫痪后仍能发挥作用。”。

After the surgery, Mr Chinnock, from the US state of Wisconsin, had 113 rehabilitation sessions while he learned to stand and walk again.

手术后，来自美国威斯康星州的钦诺克先生进行了113次康复训练，已经能够站立和行走。

The first breakthrough was being able to move his toe, something he said left him feeling "in awe" and "very excited".

第一个突破是能够移动脚趾，他说这让他感到“敬畏”和“非常兴奋”。

He said: "To be able to move my legs and to walk and even to stand, it means a lot - that there's hope not only for me but other people."

他说:“能够移动我的腿，走路，甚至站立，这意味着很多——不仅对我，而且对其他人来说都是希望。"

Johns Hopkins University rehabilitation expert Dr Cristina Sadowsky, who was not involved in the research, said she was "really excited" about the development.

约翰·霍普金斯大学康复专家克里斯蒂娜·萨多斯基博士没有参与这项研究，她说她对这项研究“非常兴奋”。

But she cautioned that "not everybody who has a similar injury will respond the same".

但是她警告说，“不是每个伤势相似的人都会有同样的反应”。

In a similar study, by the University of Louisville, four paralysed patients tested the approach and two were able to walk with assistance.

在路易斯维尔大学的一项类似研究中，四名瘫痪患者测试了这种方法，两名患者能够在帮助下行走。

One of them was Jeff Marquis, 35, who said: "One day we were walking and they were helping me as usual and then they stopped helping me and I took maybe three or four steps in sequence."

其中一位是35岁的杰夫·马奎斯，他说:“有一天，我们在散步，他们一如既往地搀扶我，然后他们停止搀扶，我可能会连续走三四步。"

Scientists are still investigating why the stimulator helps some patients but not others.

科学家仍在调查为什么刺激器对一些病人有效，而对于其他病人没有作用。

Dr Lee said: "We still have a long way to go before we can optimise this therapy and make it relevant to other patients."

Lee博士说:“我们还有很长的路要走，才能优化这种疗法，使它适用于其他患者。"

Kristin Zhao, director of the Mayo Clinic's Assistive and Restorative Technology Laboratory, was also cautious.

梅奥诊所辅助和恢复技术实验室主任Kristin Zhao也很谨慎。

She said: "Now I think the real challenge starts, and that's understanding how this happened, why it happened, and which patients will respond."

她说:“现在我认为真正的挑战开始了，那就是理解这是如何发生的，为什么会发生，以及哪些病人会做出反应。"

But Mr Chinnock is prepared to see how far his body can go with the help of the technology.

但是钦诺克先生准备看看在这项技术的帮助下，他的身体能走多远。

He said: "The hopeful side (is) that maybe I'll get where I can leave the wheelchair behind - even if it is to walk to the refrigerator and back, you know, not very far."

他说：“有希望的一面是，我可能会把轮椅放在后面 - 即使是要走到冰箱后面，你知道，不是很远。”

The research is published in the journal Nature Medicine.

这项研究发表在《自然医学》杂志上。