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 Professor Pierre Rabischong"We activated the muscles using implants."  real 28k Peter Mansell, RADR"It's promoting false expectations" real 28k |
It is hoped that eventually, the implants will stimulate muscles and allow patients to reproduce a walking motion.
Several centres across Europe are working on the same technology, including the Mersey Spinal Injuries Unit in Southport Hospital.
Some patients have already been given the implants, although the pan-European project has been hit by technical setbacks.
When someone is paralysed, the nerves which send messages to the muscles are severed.
The implants deliver a tiny electric "shock" to the muscles, simulating a nerve instruction, and prompting the muscle to contract and move the limb.
Limitation warning
The idea is that the patient controls the muscle contractions using buttons on crutches to simulate a full walking action.
I just want to be able to walk upright from room to room. That would be an incredible thing  |
Marc Merger, implant patient
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The first implantation operation took place in December on a French patient - but had to be repeated last month because of a technical problem.
Marc Merger, 39, was paralysed from the waist down in a car accident in 1990.
He took his first steps since earlier this month thanks to the technology.
At a press conference on Monday, he said: "I know I will not be able to walk through the fields again.
"I just want to be able to walk upright from room to room. That would be an incredible thing."
The scientists behind the project have warned that there will still be huge limitations, even with fully-functional implants.
Not all paraplegics will be able to benefit from the implants - and even those that do will still have to spend most of their time in a wheelchair, using the implants only occasionally.
And the cost of the technology is bound to remain high, say the scientists - possibly out of reach of the NHS.
Project co-ordinator Dr Pierre Rabischong stressed only a fraction of patients would be suitable for the implant.
He said: "They need muscles to be able to stand, so the injury must not have damaged the brain's motor centre to the lower limbs, meaning the muscles waste away.
"Our goal is to allow people in all the countries of Europe to go into a centre near their home to have tests to see if they can enter the programme."
Two young Italian men are next in line for the treatment.
They are building up their leg muscles by electronic stimulation and learning to walk with external electrodes before having a device implanted.
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