Walking after spinal cord injury: Evaluation, treatment, and functional recovery

Objective: To present some recent developments and concepts emerging from b oth animal and human studies aimed at enhancing recovery of walking after s pinal cord injury (SCI). Data Sources: Researchers in the field of restoration of walking after SCI, as well as references extracted from searches in the Medline computerized database. Study Selection: Studies that reported outcome measures of walking for spin al cord injured persons with an incomplete motor function loss or cats with either a complete or incomplete spinal section. Data Extraction: Data were extracted and validity was assessed by the autho rs. Data Synthesis: This review shows that a multitude of interventions-mechani cal, electrical, or pharmacologic-can increase the walking abilities of per sons with SCI who have incomplete motor function loss. Conclusions: A comprehensive evaluation of walking behavior requires tasks involving the different control variables. This comprehensive evaluation ca n be used to characterize the process of recovery of walking as well as the effectiveness of various treatments. (C) 1999 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and R ehabilitation.