SFU leg-paralysis stimulation, sensing device hits market
By Design Engineering staff
General government funding prosthetics R&DThe Neurostep--a device developed at Simon Fraser University that assists people who have paralysis in one leg to walk--will soon be on the market in Europe and, eventually, in the U.S. and Canada.
Victhom recently obtained Europe’s CE Mark approval for its Neurostep System, the first approval of its kind for a closed-loop system (CLS) that uses signals sensed directly from peripheral nerves. The approval paves the way for marketing the Neurostep in Europe and developing patient training activities for hospitals and physicians.
Victhom is also working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials and eventually introduce the device in the U.S.
Hoffer and his students in SFU’s Neurokinesiology Lab are now focused on developing and testing (in pigs) a reversible, minimally invasive nerve stimulation electrode for “pacing” the human diaphragm muscle.
Their research, funded by an NSERC Idea-to-Innovation grant, could lead to a device that assists breathing and prevents diaphragm-muscle weakness or atrophy in critically ill patients who currently can only be kept alive with mechanical ventilation.
www.neurokin.sfu.ca/researchProject.php?s=381
www.victhom.com/en/neurostimulation/neurostep.php
www.sfu.ca
