Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek (παραπληγίη) "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural (brain) elements of the spinal canal. The area of the spinal canal that is affected in paraplegia is either the thoracic, lumbar, or sacral regions. If four limbs are affected by paralysis, tetraplegia or quadriplegia is the correct term. If only one limb is affected, the correct term is monoplegia. Spastic paraplegia is a form of paraplegia defined by spasticity of the affected muscles, rather than flaccid paralysis.
Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti was an American professional football player who was a middle linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Buoniconti played professionally for the Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins, winning two Super Bowls with the Dolphins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis is a spinal cord injury research center and a designated Center of Excellence at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida.
The Miller School of Medicine, officially Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, is the University of Miami's graduate medical school in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1952, it is the oldest medical school in the state of Florida.
Michael Gerard Utley is an American former professional football player who was a guard for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Washington State Cougars, earning first-team All-American honors in 1988. Utley was selected in the third round of the 1989 NFL draft. He played for Detroit from 1989 until 1991, when he was paralyzed during a game.
Jack Elliot Zigler is a Board Certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in spine surgery at the Texas Back Institute in Plano, Texas. He is best known for being the first surgeon to perform a ProDisc artificial disc replacement surgery in the United States, on October 3, 2001.
Miami Project may refer to:
MedStar National Rehabilitation Network is located in Washington, D.C., and specializes in treating persons with physical disabilities. The National Rehabilitation Hospital was founded in 1986 by Edward A. Eckenhoff, and is a member of the MedStar Health system, the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore region's largest non-profit healthcare organization.
John Quinn Trojanowski was an American academic research neuroscientist specializing in neurodegeneration. He and his partner, Virginia Man-Yee Lee, MBA, Ph.D., are noted for identifying the roles of three proteins in neurodegenerative diseases: tau in Alzheimer's disease, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, and TDP-43 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration.
Ernest Herman Joseph Bors, MD was a Czech-born American physician. He was a pioneer in the multidisciplinary care of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
The Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation (SSPF) is a charitable organization founded in 2000 and headquartered in Pennington, New Jersey. It has since been renamed Conquer Paralysis Now.
The Canadian Spinal Research Organization (SCRO) is a nationally registered charity whose mission is to improve the physical quality of life for persons with spinal cord injuries (SCI) and related neurological deficits, as well as to reduce the number of spinal cord injuries through awareness and prevention programs.
The University of Miami Division of Surgical Neurooncology is the neurological surgery center at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and one of the largest and most comprehensive programs for brain tumor treatment in the United States. It is located in Miami.
Nicholas Theodore is an American neurosurgeon and researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is known for his work in spinal trauma, minimally invasive surgery, robotics, and personalized medicine. He is Director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program at Johns Hopkins and Co-Director of the Carnegie Center for Surgical Innovation at Johns Hopkins.
Arthur L. Jenkins III is an American fellowship-trained neurosurgeon, co-director of the Neurosurgical Spine Program, and Director of Spinal Oncology and Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery (MIS) Program at the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Additionally, he is an associate professor of Neurosurgery and of Orthopedic Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Jenkins has multiple patents and patent applications for spine-related implants and support systems, and is developing new minimally invasive treatments for patients with cancer that has spread to the spine. He is an innovator in the treatment of acute spinal cord injury as well as degenerative and congenital anomalies of the spine, taking a minimally invasive or minimal-impact approach where possible. He is board certified in Neurological Surgery and is licensed in New York and Connecticut.
Michael Fehlings is a Canadian neurosurgeon based at Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Fehlings specializes in complex spine surgery with a special interest in traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury and spine oncology. He mainly focuses on preclinical and clinical translational research related to enhancing repair and regeneration of the injured central nervous system. He holds many positions, including Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, Vice Chair Research at the University of Toronto, Robert Campeau Foundation/Dr. C.H. Tator Chair in Brain and Spinal Cord Research at UHN, Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, McLaughlin Scholar in Molecular Medicine, and Co-Director of the University of Toronto Spine Program. He is the past inaugural Director of the University of Toronto Neuroscience Program, and was the previous Medical Director at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Fehlings is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada.
Mary Elizabeth Bartlett Bunge was an American neuroscientist who researched a cure for paralysis at the University of Miami, where she was a professor of cell biology.
Branko Kopjar is a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Washington. He is best known for his contributions in the 1990s to the field of injury prevention and his later work on spine, orthopedic and spinal cord injury research. In addition, he has been published in several top journals in the fields of cardiology, oncology, public health and neurosurgery resulting in a total of more than 500 articles, reports, reviews and abstracts.
Nick Arison has been the CEO of the Miami Heat since 2011, managing the daily operations of the organization. Arison has also held the position of alternate governor since 2005. He has been employed full-time by the organization since 2003.
Shimon Rochkind is an Israeli clinician and an operating neurosurgeon. His professional interests include surgery on the peripheral nerves, the lumbar and sacral spine, brachial plexus and cauda equina. Rochkind pioneered the use of the laser therapy for the treatment of injuries in the peripheral nervous system. Currently he dedicates a fair share of his time to the scientific work: developing the matrix for peripheral nerve and spinal cord reconstruction.
