Endovascular brain-computer implant safe, effective for patients with paralysis

SEATTLE — In a first-in-human study, participants with paralysis who received an endovascular brain-computer implant were able to effectively operate a computer, researchers reported at the 2022 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.

Douglas J. Weber, MS, PhD, professor at Carnegie Mellon University Neuroscience Institute and College of Engineering, and colleagues assessed the safety and feasibility of using an endovascular motor neuroprosthesis (MNP) to control a computer by thought by enrolling five patients with ALS, four of whom received the implant.

“[This] is a device that measures, then translates brain signals into computer signals,” Weber said in an AAN press conference held prior to the meeting. “This can be used for digital messaging, web browsing and other actions that allow people with severe paralysis to reconnect with the world.”

While current MNP devices require invasive craniotomy surgery, Weber and colleagues noted, the newly developed technology is guided via a catheter into the superior sagittal sinus and attached to an electronic unit in a subcutaneous pocket, which relays brain signals from the motor cortex into commands for a computer.

“[Our device] is endovascular, which means that it is delivered by a venous catheter using techniques that are common neuro-interventional procedures,” Weber said. “Since the device is fully implanted and easy for patients to use, they can use the technology independently and in their own home.”

Of the four patients who underwent the implant procedure, all learned to use the device with eye tracking and successfully completed the 12-month follow-up with no serious adverse events and no device migration.

“[This technology has] the great potential to empower the more than 5 million people in the U.S. [with paralysis] to once again perform important activities of daily living independently,” Weber said.