Tiny device may spell end to debilitating arthritis

A thumbnail size device may soon become a saviour for those who suffer a incurable, painful and debilitating form of arthritis.

A thumbnail size device that stimulates one of the main nerves in the body to treat “young person’s arthritis” instead of medication, is offering hope of a new era of relieving the incurable, painful and debilitating condition.

The “electroceutical device” developed by Melbourne’s Bionics Institute was able to eradicate limping, pain and swollen limbs in animals with rheumatoid arthritis, prompting the team to push ahead with their plan to test the treatment in Victorian patients within the next two years.

Lead researcher Dr Sophie Payne said while research groups were able to improve symptoms of the auto-immune disease, the device caused side effects such coughing and slowing of heart rate.

“We’re physically overcoming those barrier by targeting the abdomen to insert the device below the lungs,” Dr Payne said.

“We know that it works in at least 50 per cent of patients that receive the stimulation in the neck, so we’re hoping our device will do better because it can stimulate patients for longer and us higher amounts because we’re not limited by the side effects.”

The institute has developed a similar device, research that has been partly funded by the US military, that will be tested in a world-first trial in Victorian patients with inflammatory bowel disease next year.

The rheumatoid arthritis device is inserted via keyhole surgery to wrap around the vagus nerve - the “super highway” connecting the brain to the gut, and branching into each organ in between - to sit just under the left ribs.

A cord runs from the thumbnail-size electrode array down to the hip, where a palm-size stimulator sits under the skin.

The doctor can control the device wirelessly.

“This inflammatory disease affects young, healthy people, and a majority of females,” she said.

“When flare-ups happen you can be in absolute agony, unable to the do the most basic of things.

“This is about harnessing what your body is able to do naturally, and nudging it in the right the direction to dampen down this excessive immune response.”

The institute is launching an online fundraising drive to fast-track this research into a clinical trial for the condition affecting half a million Australians.