Paralysis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Paralysis, including details on treatment, diagnosis, facial paralysis, sleep paralysis. | ||||||||
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Monitoring standing wheelchair use after spinal cord injury: a case report.Shields RK, Dudley-Javoroski S Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Physical Rehabilitation Science, Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. richard-shields@uiowa.edu PURPOSE: An important issue in spinal cord injury (SCI) research is whether standing can yield positive health benefits. However, quantifying dose of standing and establishing subject compliance with a standing protocol is difficult. This case report describes a method to monitor dose of standing outside the laboratory, describes the standing patterns of one subject, and describes this subject's satisfaction with the standing protocol. METHOD: A man with T-10 complete paraplegia agreed to have his commercially available standing wheelchair instrumented with a custom-designed logging device for a 2-year period. The micro-controller-based logger, under custom software control, was mounted to the standing wheelchair. The logger recorded date, duration, angle of standing, and start/stop times. RESULTS: The client exceeded a suggested minimum dosage of standing per month (130.4% of goal), choosing to stand for short bouts (mean = 11.57 min) at an average angle of 61 degrees, on an average 3.86 days per calendar week. He was generally very satisfied with the standing device and provided subjective reports of improved spasticity and bowel motility. CONCLUSION: This case report describes a standing and surveillance system that allow quantification of standing dose. Future controlled studies are needed to evaluate whether standing can be beneficially affect secondary complications after SCI. Published 12 April 2005 in Disabil Rehabil, 27(3): 142-6.
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