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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/12/health/12REEV.html

Christopher Reeve Regains Some Movement, Doctor Says

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

hristopher Reeve, the actor who was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident in 1995, has regained the ability to wiggle his fingers, move all his joints and sense touch all over his body by tenaciously following a grueling therapy that uses exercise and electricity to activate muscle groups, his doctor says.

"He did what everybody thought was not possible," said the doctor, John W. McDonald, an assistant professor of neurology and director of the spinal cord injury program at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who designed the therapy for Mr. Reeve and described it in an article in the current issue of The Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. "He had the highest level of injury and no recovery for five years. Now he's improving every day."

The treatment is not a panacea, Dr. McDonald said. Mr. Reeve, 49, still must use a wheelchair and a respirator, and there is no way to predict whether he will ever walk or breathe independently. But, the doctor said, his muscles and bones are stronger, he has fewer infections and sensations of spasticity, and his quality of life has greatly improved.

"I have been able to stay out of the hospital for three and a half years," his doctor quoted him as saying. "To look down at my legs and not see noodles is very important." Through a spokesman, Mr. Reeve declined to be interviewed.

The therapy, which uses electrodes to stimulate patterns of movement in the body and brain, holds promise for other seriously injured patients, Dr. McDonald said.

But he added that Mr. Reeve is one of a kind. Of 20 patients being treated with the same therapy, Mr. Reeve has worked the hardest and longest and has achieved the best results, Dr. McDonald said.

Dr. V. Reggie Edgerton, a leading expert on spinal cord injury and repair at the University of California at Los Angeles, called the results "quite exciting." Dr. Edgerton said quadriplegic patients are often told nothing can be done to help them, "so they become passive and give up trying." Mr. Reeve's success gives the lie to that claim, he said.

Dr. McDonald said it was not clear precisely what had led to Mr. Reeve's improvement. One possibility is that a small number of nerves around the site of his injury were left alive but somehow atrophied. The exercise may be reactivating these fibers, allowing signals to pass between body and brain. Or, he said, the activity is inducing new nerve connections to grow around the site of injury.

In the therapy, which is carried out at his home, Mr. Reeve reclines in a special recumbent bicycle for three one-hour sessions each week. Even though he is paralyzed and cannot move his muscles voluntarily, his legs can be made to move the pedals with the help of electrodes attached to his hamstrings, quadriceps and gluteal muscles.

On other days, electrodes stimulate other muscle groups in Mr. Reeve's abdomen, spine, wrists, deltoids, biceps and triceps.

The therapy produced no results for a year, Dr. McDonald said. He described Mr. Reeve's progress: Then one day Mr. Reeve could wiggle a finger on his left hand. Soon after that he could move his right hand, then his wrists. Gradually he regained the ability to sense light touch, pressure and heat. Supported on his back while lying in a pool, Mr. Reeve can make half a snow angel. Out of the pool, he can move his fingers and wiggle his hips.

The best explanation for this level of recovery is that signals from Mr. Reeve's muscles are reaching his brain, Dr. McDonald said. But he added that his patient was unusually dedicated. "While some people are able to accept living with a disability," Dr. McDonald quoted Mr. Reeve as saying, "I am not one of them."

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