Lateral Cord Magnetic Stimulation For Refractory Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Overview

Lateral cord stimulation (LCS) was discovered by the author as the producer of an average threshold increase for abnormal muscle contraction responses, in experimental pathological conditions, as described and referred. This physiological effect is proposed to improve tone, motor function and speech, in patients with spasticity of different causes, such as cerebrovascular accident, congenital brain malformations, perinatal anoxia (image called cerebral palsy), sequels of neurosurgery, etc. Due to its non-invasiveness and possible efficacy, the use of magnetic stimulation is proposed to try to demonstrate its therapeutic utility. This is the clinical test of phase 2/3 of the method, in the future, and how its use could be extended, if the results were positive, its indications could be extended to other pathological conditions, giving a greater spectrum of spastic patients, potentially benefited

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a chronic and non-progressive morbid disease that affects psychomotor development, with multiple etiologies that share a common condition of acquired perinatal anomalies during development. The manifestations are multiple and varied, with more frequent motor disorders, speech disorders, mental retardation, spasticity, dystonia, etc.. About a third of these patients have a normal IQ, for whom those signs are more disabling than for others, and for refractory speech problems there is no therapy available These subjects have generally been unsuccessfully treated with medications, botulinum toxin injections, rehabilitation or kinesic orthosis, maintaining their abnormal stable conditions at the end of childhood or early adulthood. The rational for this clinical trial is that the author has demonstrated the reduction of the excitability threshold of the nociceptive response by electrically stimulating the lateral spinal cord in an animal model, therefore, its possible beneficial action on abnormal muscle tone, somatic motor functions and improvement of speech, by this method. Spastic Cerebral Palsy has been chosen as a targeted population, because it use to be a chronic and irreversible condition with few therapeutic options, ineffective and frequent complications. It is of ancient knowledge that electric currents can alter the functions of the Nervous System In the last decades there was a refinement of these techniques of stimulation, being able to emphasize especially the Transcranial or Spinal Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). This therapeutic method, developed in the eighties, is able to modulate brain activity, through the stimulation of limited cortical or spinal areas, with minimal side effects, which is applied through a coil that produces an alternating electrical current. The constant change of orientation of this alternating current generates a powerful electromagnetic field, capable of crossing the cranial scalp and the skull bone or the osteo-ligamentary structures and originating an electric current restricted to small areas of the brain, cerebellum or spinal cord The objective of the present clinical trial is to demonstrate the therapeutic effect of focal stimulation of the spinal cord in speech and motor function assessed by Modifyied Aschworth sacale and speech, evaluated through Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Scale, selected cases of spastic CP The rational is to focus the magnetic impact on the lateral surface of the spinal cord, trying to stimulate the spinocerebellar tracts, because of its superficial location, therefore, more accessible.