Abstract
A letter questionnaire was sent to 250 spinal cord injury (SCI) patients with leg braces who were admitted to a VA Medical Centre from January 1978 to December 1984. There were 73 responses deemed to be complete and acceptable. Among these 73 patients, 61 were paraplegic at the thoracic level and 12 were paraplegic at the lumbar level. They were all male veterans with an average age of 53.4 years. We found only 16 patients (22%) who were still using their braces for ambulation at the time of the survey. All 16 had lesions below T9 level, and 13 had incomplete cord lesions. The remaining 57 (78%) patients were not ambulatory; 13 of these were occasionally using their braces for standing. Statistical analysis revealed that discontinued usage of braces for ambulation was not related to length of initial hospitalisation, years after injury, marital status, educational level, living arrangements, social activities, sports participation or length of initial hospitalisation; but was related to age, level and severity of injury, medical problems and dependency on activities of daily living. In view of similar experiences at other SCI centres, it is concluded that the above factors should be considered in prescribing lower extremity braces for SCI patients.
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Presented at the 1986 combined annual meetings of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, October 1986.
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Hong, C., San Luis, E. & Chung, S. Follow-up study on the use of leg braces issued to spinal cord injury patients. Spinal Cord 28, 172–177 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1990.22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1990.22
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