1. Effects of Performance-Based Training on Gait and Balance in Individuals With Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury
- Author
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Donal Murray, John P Collins, Kerry B. Rosen, Brian T. Neville, Andrew A. Guccione, and Caitlin A. Bryson
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,030506 rehabilitation ,medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Pilot Projects ,Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation ,Sampling Studies ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Physical medicine and rehabilitation ,Gait (human) ,medicine ,Postural Balance ,Humans ,Spinal cord injury ,Gait Disorders, Neurologic ,Physical Therapy Modalities ,Spinal Cord Injuries ,Aged ,Balance (ability) ,Rehabilitation ,business.industry ,Middle Aged ,medicine.disease ,Berg Balance Scale ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Motor learning ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Progressive overload - Abstract
Objective To determine changes in balance and gait following a task-specific, performance-based training protocol for overground locomotor training (OLT) in individuals with motor-incomplete spinal cord injury (iSCI). Design Convenience sample, prepilot and postpilot study. Setting Human performance research laboratory. Participants Adults (N=15; 12 men and 3 women; mean age [y] ± SD, 41.5±16.9), American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale C or D, >6 months post-spinal cord injury. Interventions Two 90-minute OLT sessions per week over 12 to 15 weeks. OLT sessions were built on 3 principles of motor learning: practice variability, task specificity, and progressive overload (movement complexity, resistance, velocity, volume). Training used only voluntary movements without body-weight support, robotics, electrical stimulation, or bracing. Subjects used ambulatory assistive devices as necessary. Main Outcome Measures Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Spinal Cord Injury Functional Ambulation Inventory (SCI-FAI) gait parameters, spatiotemporal measures of gait (step length, step width, percent stance, stance:swing ratio) from 7 participants who walked across a pressure-sensitive walkway. Results Fourteen participants completed the OLT protocol and 1 participant completed 15 sessions due to scheduled surgery. The BBS scores showed a mean improvement of 4.53±4.09 (P Conclusion This pilot demonstrated improvements in balance and selected gait characteristics using a task-specific, performance-based OLT for chronic iSCI.
- Published
- 2019