BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine published a case report on 2026-10-25 describing a patient with chronic complete spinal cord injury whose neurological status improved from AIS A to AIS C after one year of combined neuromodulation and conventional rehabilitation. The authors were affiliated with the rehabilitation and neurosurgery departments at Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University and research departments at China Medical University in China. AIS classifies spinal cord injury; AIS A denotes complete injury, while AIS C denotes motor-incomplete injury.
The patient was a 53-year-old man with chronic complete T9 spinal cord injury classified as AIS A. His sequential multimodal protocol comprised spinal cord electrical stimulation, brain-computer interface (BCI) training, intermittent theta-burst stimulation of the primary motor cortex, and peripheral magnetic stimulation of the bilateral iliopsoas muscles, alongside 12 months of conventional rehabilitation.
After one year, his classification improved from AIS A to AIS C, and his neurological injury level changed from T9 to T12. His left lower limb motor score increased from 0 to 6, with partial voluntary movement returning. Spontaneous defecation and penile erection were restored, and neuropathic pain was fully alleviated, with the visual analogue scale (VAS) score decreasing from 8 to 0. Electrophysiological assessments showed partial recovery of lower limb motor conduction and motor evoked potentials.
The authors interpreted the electrophysiological changes as suggesting possible corticospinal tract remodeling. They described the case as preliminary clinical evidence of an association between a combined "central-peripheral-central" neuromodulation strategy and functional recovery. The uncontrolled single-case design cannot exclude spontaneous neurological recovery or establish the independent contribution of each intervention. The authors called for further multicenter controlled trials.