1. The e-Dura: The New Flexible Spinal Implant That Will Revolutionize Spinal Cord Injury Treatment The Spinal Cord and Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) The e-Dura Comparing the e-Dura to Other Spinal Implants DeviceFlexibilityEffects on PatientLifespan The e-Dura The e-Dura is an exceptionally flexible device. The goal of the designers was to make an implant that would expand and relax naturally with the spinal cord. The e-Dura increases the quality of life of the patient by allowing them to walk with essentially no additional damage to the spinal cord. The e- Dura also does not cause the patient pain. The e-Dura is predicted to last up to ten years in a patient’s body without causing inflammation or unnecessary nerve damage. Other Implants All other spinal implants are extremely rigid and do not have the ability to move and stretch with the spinal cord. The inflexibility of other spinal implants cause the patient to experience inflammation and additional nerve damage to the spinal cord. The problems accompanied by these devices do not allow an increase in quality of life for patients. Other implants can be expected to cause additional damage to the spinal cord as soon as two weeks after implantation. This additional damage causes the patient pain, therefore shortening the lifespan of the device. Brooke Arnold & Kendra Bree Flexible spinal implant Currently being tested on rats, and needs more development before human clinical trials Treats an injured nervous system by electrical and chemically stimulating a neural response Implanted above the dura mater of the spine to provide an interface for the electrodes of the device and targeted neural tissues Movement in the rats is restored by the firing of electricity and the delivery of intrathecal medicine to the surrounding nerves and tissues The renewed movement was generated with the assistance of an external machine, which provided artificial electrical signals E-Dura interprets electrical signals and sends them to surrounding nerves, generating movement in the once paralyzed limbs Categorized as a sustainable device because it not only increases the quality of life, but the long lasting lifespan of the device increases the length of patient satisfaction Spinal cord is a bundle of neural cells and nerve pathways Cord extends from the base of the brain to the lower back Malleable and constantly expanding and relaxing to allow comfortable movement The spinal cord primarily serves as an information highway, receiving sensory information from all parts of the body and relaying that information to the brain to be processed and perceived After a spinal cord injury, the spinal cord begins to swell, reducing blood flow and sending signals for apoptosis, or cell suicide Most devastating effect of a spinal cord injury is the disruption of the signals passing between the brain and the rest of the body Disruption of signals results in total loss of feeling and essentially no control of function below the level of injury Depending on the location of an injury, SCIs can result in either tetraplegia, paralysis in most of the body, or paraplegia, paralysis in the lower body