Walking after spinal cord injury: evaluation, treatment, and functional recovery.

Abstract

To present some recent developments and concepts emerging from both animal and human studies aimed at enhancing recovery of walking after spinal cord injury (SCI). Researchers in the field of restoration of walking after SCI, as well as references extracted from searches in the Medline computerized database. Studies that reported outcome measures of walking for spinal cord injured persons with an incomplete motor function loss or cats with either a complete or incomplete spinal section. Data were extracted and validity was assessed by the authors. This review shows that a multitude of interventions--mechanical, electrical, or pharmacologic--can increase the walking abilities of persons with SCI who have incomplete motor function loss. A comprehensive evaluation of walking behavior requires tasks involving the different control variables. This comprehensive evaluation can be used to characterize the process of recovery of walking as well as the effectiveness of various treatments.