The Impact of Robotic Therapy on the Self-Perception of Upper Limb Function in Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

V. Lozano-Berrio, M. Alcobendas-Maestro, B. Polonio-López, A. Gil-Agudo, A. de la Peña-González and A. de los Reyes-Guzmán
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V. Lozano-Berrio: Biomechanics and Technical Aids Department, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury, 45004 Toledo, Spain
M. Alcobendas-Maestro: Biomechanics and Technical Aids Department, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury, 45004 Toledo, Spain
B. Polonio-López: Technological Innovation Applied to Health Research Group (ITAS), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 45600 Talavera de la Reina, Spain
A. Gil-Agudo: Biomechanics and Technical Aids Department, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury, 45004 Toledo, Spain
A. de la Peña-González: Occupational Therapy Unit, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury, 45004 Toledo, Spain
A. de los Reyes-Guzmán: Biomechanics and Technical Aids Department, National Hospital for Spinal Cord Injury, 45004 Toledo, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-12

Abstract: Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of robotic therapy in patients with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI), measured on the basis of the patients’ self-perception of limited upper limb function and level of independence in activities of daily living. Methods: Twenty-six patients with cervical SCI completed the treatment after being randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The training consisted of 40 experimental sessions 1 h in duration, ideally occurring 5 days/week for 8 weeks. In addition to the conventional daily therapy (30 min), the control group received another 30 min of conventional therapy, whereas the intervention group received 30 min of robotic therapy. Patients were evaluated by means of the Capabilities of Upper Extremity Questionnaire (CUE) and Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) clinical scales. Results: The improvement in the feeding item of SCIM was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group after the treatment (2.00 (0.91) vs. 1.18 (0.89), p = 0.03). The correlation between the CUE and SCIM scales was higher at the ending than at baseline for both groups. Conclusions: Although both groups improved, the clinical relevance related to the changes observed for both assessments was slightly higher in the intervention group than in the control group.

Keywords: spinal cord injury; exoskeleton; robot-assisted therapy; upper limb; self-perception; activities of daily living (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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