Muscle biopsies show that FES of denervated muscles reverses human muscle degeneration from permanent spinal motoneuron lesion.

This paper presents biopsy analyses in support of the clinical evidence of muscle recovery induced by a new system of life-long functional-electrical-stimulation (FES) training in permanent spinal-motoneuron-denervated human muscle. Not earlier than 1 year after subjects experienced complete conus cauda lesion, their thigh muscles were electrically stimulated at home for several years with large skin surface electrodes and an expressly designed stimulator that delivered much longer impulses than those presently available for clinical use. The poor excitability of long-term denervated muscles was first improved by several months of twitch-contraction training.