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  • Case Report
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Restoring initial steps by intermittent theta burst stimulation in complete spinal cord injury patient: a case report

Spinal Cord Series and Cases volume 10, Article number: 56 (2024) Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Introduction

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes damage to neurons and results in motor and sensory dysfunction. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) has been used to induce neuronal and synaptic plasticity by applying a magnetic field in the brain. The plasticity induced in the cortex has an imperative role in the recovery of motor and sensory functioning. However, the effect of iTBS in complete SCI patients is still elusive.

Case presentation

We report here the case of a 27-year-old female who sustained an L1 complete spinal cord injury (SCI) with an ASIA score of A. The patient lost all the sensory and motor functions below the level of injury. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) was administered at 80% of the resting motor threshold over the M1 motor cortex, along with intensive rehabilitation training to promote sensorimotor function.

Discussion

There was a partial recovery in functional, electrophysiological, and neurological parameters. The case report also demonstrates the safety and efficacy of iTBS in complete SCI patients. No adverse event has been observed in the patient during intervention sessions.

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Data availability

The data generated or analyzed during this study can be found within the published article and additional data will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for providing us with funding and all the patients for participation and support. We also want to acknowledge Mr. Sanjeev and Mr. Praveen for this technical support.

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India in 2019 (BT_2052).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Stimulation and Neuromodulation Laboratory, Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, 110029, India

    Deeksha Patel, Rohit Banerjee, Kanwal Preet Kochhar & Suman Jain

  2. Department of Orthopaedics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, 110029, India

    Kamran Farooque & Bhavuk Garg

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, 110029, India

    Deepak Gupta

  4. Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, 110029, India

    Nand Kumar

  5. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, 110029, India

    Gita H. Thukral

Authors
  1. Deeksha Patel
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  2. Rohit Banerjee
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  3. Kamran Farooque
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  4. Deepak Gupta
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  5. Bhavuk Garg
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  6. Nand Kumar
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  7. Gita H. Thukral
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  8. Kanwal Preet Kochhar
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  9. Suman Jain
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Contributions

DP: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Writing—original draft. RB: Data curation, Methodology. KF: Patient recruitment and screening, Investigation, Writing—review & editing. DG: Patient recruitment and screening, Methodology, Writing—review & editing. BG: Investigation, Patient recruitment and screening. NK: Supervision, Lab facility. GHT: Supervision, Rehabilitation training. KPK: Writing—review & editing, supervision. SJ: Lab facility, Supervision, Writing—original draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suman Jain.

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Patel, D., Banerjee, R., Farooque, K. et al. Restoring initial steps by intermittent theta burst stimulation in complete spinal cord injury patient: a case report. Spinal Cord Ser Cases 10, 56 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-024-00669-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41394-024-00669-8

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