OBJECTIVE  Several nerve transfers have now been successfully performed for upper limb reanimation in tetraplegia. This study was performed to review the use of nerve transfers for upper limb reanimation in tetraplegia. METHODS  Medline and Embase (1950 to February 11, 2015) were searched using a search strategy designed to include any studies that reported cases of nerve transfer in persons ...

Though epilepsy occurs in 15-90% of children with cerebral palsy (CP) its clinical course is not well defined. We therefore conducted studies of 198 children with CP seen in Pediatric Neurology Department of the Medical Academy in Białystok between 1994 and, 2001. The aim was to evaluate the risk factors, incidence and prognosis of epilepsy in CP. The overall epilepsy incidence was 41.4%. Epile...

People with complete tetraplegia have interrupted melatonin production and commonly report poor sleep. Whether the two are related is unclear. This pilot study investigated whether nightly supplementation of 3 mg melatonin would improve objective and subjective sleep in tetraplegia. Five participants with motor and sensory complete tetraplegia ingested 3 mg melatonin (capsule) two hours prior t...

Background—We studied the role of the central nervous system, neural feedback from contracting skeletal muscles, and sympathetic activity to the heart in the control of heart rate and blood pressure during 2 levels of dynamic exercise. Methods and Results—Spinal cord–injured individuals (SCI) with (paraplegia, n 4) or without (tetraplegia, n 6) sympathetic innervation to the heart performed ele...

QUESTIONS Is an 8-week progressive resistance exercise program effective for increasing strength in the wrist muscles of people with tetraplegia? Is it effective for improving muscle endurance and participants' perceptions about use of their hands for activities of daily living? DESIGN Randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis. ...

Trauma of the infant or juvenile spine is a very rare occurrence (less than 2%). Nevertheless, it is almost always dramatic. In 21 years 1630 patients with spinal cord injuries were treated. Of these, 21.7% (357 patients) had injuries in the area of the cervical spine. 23 patients (1.4%) were younger than 17.5 years, 8 of them were younger than 10 years. In 10 cases the cause was a traffic acci...

Recent proposals of classification for cerebral palsy (CP), mainly revised for epidemiological purposes, suggest to abandon the use of the term diplegia. Conversely, in this paper data are presented to support the proposal to maintain the distinction between spastic tetraplegia and diplegia, and to subdivide this latter according to four main clinical patterns of walking observable in these chi...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between psychologic cues of somatic stress and physiologic responses to exercise in persons with paraplegia and tetraplegia. DESIGN Repeated measures with 2 comparison groups. SETTING Academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS Forty-two subjects between 18 and 69 years of age with motor-complete spinal cord injury (SCI) resulting in paraplegia or tetrapleg...

We reviewed the results of reconstruction of 97 upper limbs in a consecutive series of 57 tetraplegic patients, treated from 1982 to 1990. Of these, 49 had functional and eight had cosmetic reconstructions. The principal functional objectives were to provide active elbow extension, hook grip, and key pinch. Elbow extension was provided in 34 limbs, using deltoid-to-triceps transfer. Hook grip w...

Between June 2008 and March 2009, 87 cats in Australia developed symmetrical hindlimb ataxia, paraparesis, tetraparesis, paraplegia or tetraplegia in association with eating an imported, irradiated dry pet food. This communication reports the clinical signs and outcomes of those cats.