UK’s first spinal cord rehabilitation clinic for paralysed children opens
Neurokinex Kids in Crawley, the UK’s first spinal cord rehabilitation clinic for paralysed children officially opened yesterday. This £300K clinic offers state-of-the-art therapies to stimulate nerve and muscle movement.
Neurokinex was chosen as the first international NeuroRecovery Community Fitness and Wellness Affiliate of Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s Neuro Recovery Network (NRN). The Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.
Kids enjoying the brand new clinic
Activity-based therapies to promote functional recovery
The NRN was originally conceived by ex-Superman actor Christopher Reeve who believed the way forward for rehabilitation from spinal cord injury was to provide activity-based therapies that promote functional recovery.
His son, Matthew Reeve, officially opened the facility that can treat 20 children a day using treatments it claims are not available anywhere else in Europe. Neurokinex will be delivering treatment using two NRN protocols: Locomotor Training and NeuroMuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES).
Homes Under The Hammer presenter, Lucy Alexander, visits the new clinic
NRN protocols
Locomotor Training emerged from recent advances in the understanding that the spinal cord can interpret sensory information below the level of injury and relay signals to generate a motor response. It works to awaken dormant nerve pathways by repetitively stimulating the muscles and nerves in the lower body and thus retrain the spinal cord to ‘remember’ the pattern of walking.
The NMES approach was developed by the NRN. Its unique protocol targets many muscles at the same time during a useful movement, using parameters that activate the spinal cord. This, combined with the precise administering of the electrical stimulus to move the muscle or paralysed limb, excites the central nervous system in such a way it can promote neuroplasticity.
Stuart Dunne from Cyclone was invited to the opening and said, “It is great to see this level of investment to deliver such state-of-the-art therapies. This is something that we at Cyclone are always looking to embrace in the services and solutions we offer, particularly in the area of electrical stimulation to aid rehabilitation, so to see it in action here is brilliant.”
To read more about NeuroKinex, click here.
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