A 52-year-man man who was tetraplegic because of a road accident has recovered the use of his hands thanks to innovative surgery at Turin's CTO hospital, which is part of the Città della Salute (Health City) complex. The hospital said Friday that it performed the 'nerve bypass' operation for the first time in Italy, adding that it is practised by only a handful of centres around the world.
The procedure entails the bypass of damage to the spinal chord by connecting healthy nerves to other nerves that were no longer being used.
This makes it possible to reactive the nerves in areas of muscle that would otherwise be out of use.
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