We determined whether the benefits of directed rehabilitation for pain, depression, and satisfaction with life persisted for veterans who were nonambulatory after spinal epidural metastasis (SEM) treatment. Twelve consecutive veterans (paraplegic after SEM treatment) who received 2 weeks of directed rehabilitation were compared with a historical control group of thirty paraplegic veterans who d...

Transfer is a key ability and allows greater interact with the environment and social participation. Conversely, paraplegics have great risk of pain and injury in the upper limbs due to joint overloads during activities of daily living, like transfer. The main goal of this study is to verify if the use of functional electrical stimulation (FES) in the lower limbs of paraplegic individuals can a...

The specific role of autonomic vascular control in determining non-linear behaviour of RR intervals is not clear. In 10 T12-L4 paraplegic subjects (light vascular autonomic impairment), 12 T5-T11 paraplegic subjects (moderate vascular autonomic impairment), and 24 controls RR time series were recorded (10 min): 1) in resting supine position; 2) sitting on the wheelchair and 3) during a light (5...

In the U.S. there are over 300,000 people who suffer from spinal cord injuries. This incident increases every year by 10,000 to 12,000 new patients (Harrop et al., 2006). In Canada, about 36,000 people live with spinal cord injuries, while 55% of them, are people in the reproductive phase of their life, aged 16-30 years, and the ratio of men to women is calculated to 4 /1(Mittmann et al., 2005)...

The experimental and theoretical procedures used to gather ergonomic data and derive theoretical estimates of stability, effort, and safety in use of a curb-climbing aid for standard manual wheelchairs are presented. The aid, intended for use of paraplegic persons, employs ramps which the user while seated in the chair can deploy and retrieve using attached telescoping rods. Ramps and rods may ...

An eight-channel surface stimulation system, designed for paraplegic stepping was adapted for paraplegic cycling on a newly developed tricycle. The stimulation system consists of two four-channel modules an Inter Integrated Bus (I2C) to RS232 interface for direct stimulator control and data exchange and a standard laptop computer. A software package for personal computers with a comfortable gra...

Purpose. To report the mean and median pelvic limb joint angles and girth measurements in miniature Dachshunds presenting with varying degrees of pelvic limb weakness secondary to thoracolumbar intervertebral disc extrusion. Methods. 15 miniature Dachshunds who presented to WSU-VTH for thoracolumbar disc extrusion. Dachshunds varied in neurologic status from ambulatory paraparetic to paraplegic...