A multi-center clinical trial titled Chronic Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury Overground Walking Restoration by Epidural Electrical Stimulation (CREST Study) has officially kicked off, led by the team of Professor Wang Guihuai, Director of the Neuroscience Center at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital, Tsinghua University. The joint participants include the National Engineering Research Center for Neuroregulation of Tsinghua University, the Department of Neurosurgery of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and the Department of Neurosurgery of Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital. This launch marks the transition of the research from a single-center trial to a large-scale multi-center study.
Spinal cord injury affects a large number of patients across China and leads to a high disability rate. Patients with complete motor spinal cord injury (AIS A/B) suffer severe impairment of lower limb motor function. For a long time, there has been no effective intervention to restore their voluntary walking ability, and conventional rehabilitation treatments show limited effects on improving walking function.
Patients with complete spinal cord injury regain walking ability after treatment
Epidural Electrical Stimulation (EES), also known as the "artificial spinal cord", regulates the neural circuits below the spinal cord injury level through spatiotemporal sequential modulation, offering a new direction for restoring neural control related to walking.
In the earlier single-center research phase, the joint team of the National Engineering Research Center for Neuroregulation of Tsinghua University and Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital verified the feasibility of this neuromodulation technique. Several patients regained the ability to walk with the help of the "artificial spinal cord" technology.
Built on previous achievements, the CREST Study adopts standardized multi-center design to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the technique. Supported by the Capital Health Development Research Special Project — Strategies and Mechanisms of Spinal-Peripheral Nerve Closed-Loop Spatiotemporal Sequential Stimulation for Central Paralysis, the study focuses on walking function rehabilitation for patients with chronic complete motor spinal cord injury. It will systematically assess the feasibility and safety of EES intervention, aiming to accumulate standardized multi-center clinical evidence for walking function restoration among such patients.
Members of the multi-center research team
Professor Wang Guihuai serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) of the study. His team includes Lu Yang, Attending Physician (sub-PI) of the Department of Neurosurgery, and the team led by Pan Yu, Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. The collaborative research team also comprises Zhao Yuanli (Director) and Guo Yi (Chief Physician) from the Department of Neurosurgery of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Pan Xin (Associate Chief Physician) from the Department of Neurosurgery of Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital, as well as experts from the National Engineering Research Center for Neuroregulation of Tsinghua University and Beijing PINS Medical Co., Ltd.
Source: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital
