[Purpose] This study compared the muscle activities of the neck and upper-limb muscles between able-bodied individuals and persons with paraplegia during wheelchair propulsion on the ground. [Subjects and Methods] The muscle activities of the neck and upper-limb muscles of 8 normal individuals and 8 individuals with paraplegia were analyzed during wheelchair propulsion. The activities of the la...

Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), perform Sitting Pivot Transfer (SPT) motion around fifteen times a day using upper extremities. It can lead to upper limbs pain and often shoulder complications. In this paper, we investigate the influence of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) on SPT motion of a paraplegic person. First, we proposed to develop...

CLINICAL LITERATURE discusses a variety of complications which may affect the paraplegic patient. The attending physician must take special care of these patients to prevent and, ff necessary, to treat these complications. A paraplegic individual is not uncommonly a candidate for a surgical procedure. It has not been sufficiently stressed in the literature that such a patient readily suffers fr...

In this work, the effects of the artificial ankle joint stiffness on the performance of sit-to-stand movement and upper body effort have been assessed during FES-assisted arm-supported standing up in paraplegic patients. An ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) was developed with the plantar-assisting spring. By changing the spring, the rigidity of the AFO could be adjusted. Experimental results on two com...

We operated on a patient who had been paraplegic since sustaining a spinal cord injury 11 years ago. We made a reversed L-shaped sternum incision and cannulated all tubes for the cardiopulmonary bypass through a wound window. This provided an excellent surgical view without restricting the patient's upper limbs (needed for wheel chair operation), and recovery was good. Just after surgery, howev...

INTRODUCTION Thromboembolic deterrent (TED) stockings are commonly used in the prevention of deep venous thrombosis. We would like to highlight a potential complication associated with the use of TED stocking. A 42-year-old paraplegic gentleman suffering from a complicated Ischial ulcer was admitted for debridement and closure with a fasciocutaneous rotational flap. Two weeks later, new pressur...

Caffeine increases sympathetic nerve activity in healthy individuals. Such modulation of nervous system activity can be tracked by assessing the heart rate variability. This study aimed to investigate the influence of caffeine on time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability parameters, blood pressure and tidal volume in paraplegic and tetraplegic compared to able-bodied participants. Heart...

BACKGROUND Spinal walking (SW) is described as the acquisition of an involuntary motor function in paraplegic dogs and cats without pain perception affected by a thoracolumbar lesion. Whereas spinal locomotion is well described in cats that underwent training trials after experimental spinal cord resection, less consistent information is available for dogs. HYPOTHESIS Paraplegic dogs affected...

The following paper is the first part of our investigation into the feasibility of arm-free paraplegic standing. A novel control strategy for unsupported paraplegic standing which utilizes the residual sensory and motor abilities of the thoracic spinal cord injured subjects is proposed. The strategy is based on voluntary and reflex activity of the paraplegic person's upper body and artificially...