Ann Rehabil Med.  2014 Jun;38(3):335-341. 10.5535/arm.2014.38.3.335.

Changes of Functional Outcomes According to the Degree of Completeness of Spinal Cord Injury

• Kim HS
• Jeong HJ
• Kim MO

• KMID: 2165750
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.2014.38.3.335

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether an initial complete impairment of spinal cord injury (SCI) contributes to the functional outcome prediction, we analyzed the relationship between the degree of complete impairment according to the American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS), the posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potential (PTSEP) and the changes of functional indices.
METHODS
Sixty subjects with SCI were studied who received rehabilitative management for over 2 months. The degree of completeness on basis of the initial AIS and PTSEP were evaluated at the beginning of rehabilitation. Following treatment, several functional indices, such as walking index for spinal cord injury version II (WISCI II), spinal cord independence measure version III (SCIM III), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and Modified Barthel Index (MBI), were evaluated until the index score reached a plateau value.
RESULTS
The recovery efficiency of WISCI and BBS revealed a statistically significant difference between complete and incomplete impairments of initial AIS and PTSEP. The SCIM and MBI based analysis did not reveal any significant differences in terms of the degree of AIS and PTSEP completeness.
CONCLUSION
AIS and PTSEP were highly effective to evaluate the prognosis in post-acute phase SCI patients. BBS and WISCI might be better parameters than other functional indices for activities of daily living to predict the recovery of the walking ability in post-acute SCI.

Keyword

Spinal cord injuries; Walking; Postural balance; Somatosensory evoked potentials

MeSH Terms

Activities of Daily Living
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory
Humans
Postural Balance
Prognosis
Rehabilitation
Spinal Cord
Spinal Cord Injuries*
Spinal Injuries
Tibial Nerve
Walking

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