Abstract
Objective:
To compare the effectiveness of body weight-supported treadmill training and body weight-supported overground training for improving gait and strength in people with traumatic incomplete tetraplegia.
Design:
Assessor blinded randomized trial.
Setting:
Rehabilitation institute of a tertiary care teaching hospital in India.
Participants:
Sixteen participants with traumatic motor incomplete tetraplegia and within two years of injury.
Interventions:
Participants were randomised to one of two groups: body weight-supported overground training on level ground and body weight-supported treadmill training. Both groups received 30 minutes of gait training per day, five days a week for eight weeks. In addition, both groups received regular rehabilitation which included flexibility, strength, balance, self care and functional training.
Outcome measures:
The primary outcome measure was the Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury (/20 points) and the secondary outcome was the Lower Extremity Muscle Score (/50 points).
Results:
There was no statistically significant between group differences in the Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury [mean difference=0.3points; 95% CI (-4.8 to 5.4); p=0.748] or the Lower Extremity Muscle Score [mean difference=0.2 points; 95% CI (-3.8 to 5.1); p=0.749].
Conclusions:
Gait training with body weight-supported overground training is comparable to treadmill training for improving locomotion in people with traumatic incomplete tetraplegia.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
