Surgery lets Reeve breathe unaided

Doctors have implanted electrodes in Christopher Reeve's diaphragm in an experiment designed to enable the paralysed actor to breathe on his own.

Reeve, 50, who has been on a respirator since he broke his neck in a horse riding accident eight years ago, could now breathe for more than two hours without the respirator, compared with 10 minutes before the surgery, his surgeon said yesterday. As his diaphragm muscles strengthened, he was expected to do away with the respirator and speak more normally, Dr Raymond Onders said.

The operation was performed at University Hospitals of Cleveland on 28 February. Reeve is the third person to have the surgery. The first, a 36-year-old man, has been breathing without assistance for two years, the hospital says.

The outpatient operation involves threading tiny wires through small incisions in the diaphragm. The wires connect a control box worn outside the body to electrodes on the diaphragm. The control box sends a signal to the electrodes 12 times a minute, causing the diaphragm to contract and air to be sucked into the lungs. When the nerve is unstimulated, the diaphragm relaxes and the air is expelled.

The alternative treatment is to open the patient's chest and attach electrodes directly to the nerves, a much more risky procedure.