THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LOCOMOTORS TRAINING ON GAIT & LOWER LIMB STRENGTH WITH BODY WEIGHT IN SPINAL CORDED INCOMPLETE INJURY PATIENTS- A CASE REPORT

Abstract

Incomplete spinal cord injury patients (SCI) highly prioritize walking restoration irrespective of the level, severity, age, gender & the time after lesion. Walking restoration in patients with incomplete SCI has been extensively studied. For functional & mobility restoration, physical rehabilitation is currently the main intervention worldwide. Strategies adopted worldwide for the physical rehabilitation of SCI patients includes robotic assisted gait training,  functional electrical stimulation (FES), Epidural stimulation, spinal surface stimulation, treadmill training with & without body weight support. This case report is an attempt to find out the effectiveness of the of locomotors training on gait & lower limb strength with body weight in spinal cord incomplete injury patients. A patient with incomplete SCI age 43years, ASIA score-C was treated with body weight support for 9 months (January, 2019-october, 2019) in the physiotherapy department of the King hospital, Swat. The outcome measures used were ASIA scale, Manual muscle testing (MMT) for lower extremity, Spinal cord injury functional ambulation inventory (SCI-FAI ) and walking Index for SCI-11 (WI-. SCI-11). The study results showed positive improvement in lower extremity strength & gait parameters (spatial & temporal parameters) on SCI –FAI, however, Score on WI-. SCI-11 & assistive device scale was not improved. This case report results can be concluded that locomotors training is highly effective in incomplete SCI patients in improving their functional mobility & restoration.