Restoration of walking in paraplegia by transferring the ulnar nerve to the hip: A report on the first patient

There is no known way to make paraplegics walk when their spinal cord is co mpletely transected. Many researchers worldwide have been developing differ ent methods to solve this problem. We believe that transferring a sound ner ve; from the upper limb to the main muscles of the hip could help paraplegi cs to walk, although light orthotic devices would still be needed. We chose to transfer the ulnar nerve because it is the longest in the upper limb an d can reach the glutei without grafts. In addition, palsy of the ulnar nerv e can tie repaired by classical reconstructive surgery. After many years of research in animals and after obtaining permission from the Ethical Commit tee of the National Health Surgery, we operated on three human beings bilat erally. The first patient is walking. Two are still recovering. (C) 1999 Wi ley-Liss, Inc.