'Nerve bypass' helps paralysed man move arm Revolutionary
surgery has given a paralysed man the ability to move his arms
and hands again, it has been widely reported. The surgery, which
made global news, has shown that rewiring nerves may allow
surgeons to restore basic arm and hand control after serious
spinal cord injuries. A 71-year-old patient had been left
paralysed from the neck down after the base of his neck was
injured in a traffic accident. In a world first, surgeons were
able to successfully bypass the injury site by grafting arm
nerves from below the injury to nerves originating above the
site of his injury. The surgery was given 23 months after his
accident, and after several more months of therapy and training
the man can handle objects, feed himself and even do basic
writing. This success story is clearly of massive significance
to the man involved but also provides a blueprint for other
surgeons around the country for how this technique may be
applied in similar situations. However, despite th