In the International Spinal Cord Injury Upper Extremity Basic Data Set1 we have adjusted the wording of a variable’s description and a variable’s coding that we would like to bring to the attention of your readers.

The following two changes to the International Spinal Cord Injury Upper Extremity Basic Data Set from Version 1.0 to Version 1.1 are:

In relation to the variable ‘Basic hand-upper extremity function’ the following sentence has been added to the Description of the variable: ‘or functional gain after upper extremity reconstructive surgery or during or after the use of a neuroprosthesis’—this will enable the same scoring to be used following these interventions:

In relation to the variable ‘Shoulder function classification’, the option ‘D. Full range of movement (ROM) of shoulder and independent reaching forward and upward’ was changed to ‘D. Ability to reach in all directions including lifting hand above the head reflecting at least grade 3 strength in the shoulder flexors and abductors and elbow extensors’. The modification was made because option D was not capturing the same construct as options A–C. Options A–C are descriptions of abilities, whereas option D was solely a description of strength even though it was not explicitly stated. In addition, the new definition now distinguishes between active and passive movement for clarity.

The adjustments are now found on ISCoS website: http://www.iscos.org.uk/international-sci-upper-extremity-data-sets, together with training cases for Version 1.1 of the International Spinal Cord Injury Upper Extremity Basic Data Set.