BALANCE AND STABILIZATION CAPABILITY OF PARAPLEGIC WHEELCHAIR ATHLETES

The orientation of paraplegic athletes toward adapted sport activities requires good knowledge of their functional characteristics. Wheelcha ir locomotion, especially for highly dynamic situations, poses the pro blem of trunk equilibrium management and head stabilization. The study aimed at designing a quantitative method to assess the ability of par aplegics to obtain trunk balance under dynamic stresses, and to analyz e the various balance strategies, according to the spinal lesion level of the subjects. High (HPA) and low (LPA) paraplegic athletes were su bjected to four series of antero-posterior stresses of increasing inte nsity, generated by an oscillating platform. By means of a computerize d video-based movement analyzer, acceleration in the saggittal plane w as measured at four different spinal levels and, for each one, a dampi ng factor was determined. This factor, computed at the head level, app eared to be representative of the subjects' ability to maintain balanc e. We attempted to differentiate balance strategies in the LPA and HPA groups through analysis of the relative contributions to damping of t he thoracic and cervical spinal segments. The first results show an in creasing tendency of neck reflex stiffening according to the neurologi cal level.