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Monitoring standing wheelchair use after spinal cord injury: a case report
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Monitoring standing wheelchair use after spinal cord injury: a case report

Richard K Shields and Shauna Dudley-Javoroski
Disability and rehabilitation, Vol.27(3), pp.142-146
02/04/2005
DOI: 10.1080/09638280400009337
PMCID: PMC3151726
PMID: 15823996
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/3151726View
Open Access

Abstract

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. 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. 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. 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.
Humans Male Muscle Spasticity - rehabilitation Patient Satisfaction Posture Gastrointestinal Motility Wheelchairs Quality of Life Adult Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation Surveys and Questionnaires Paraplegia - rehabilitation Patient Compliance

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