Monitoring standing wheelchair use after spinal cord injury: a case report.
OBJECTIVE
An important issue in spinal cord injury (SCI) research is whether standing can yield positive health benefits. However, quantifying dose of standing and establishing subject compliance with a standing protocol is difficult. This case report describes a method to monitor dose of standing outside the laboratory, describes the standing patterns of one subject, and describes this subject's satisfaction with the standing protocol.


METHODS
A man with T-10 complete paraplegia agreed to have his commercially available standing wheelchair instrumented with a custom-designed logging device for a 2-year period. The micro-controller-based logger, under custom software control, was mounted to the standing wheelchair. The logger recorded date, duration, angle of standing, and start/stop times.


RESULTS
The client exceeded a suggested minimum dosage of standing per month (130.4% of goal), choosing to stand for short bouts (mean = 11.57 min) at an average angle of 61 degrees, on an average 3.86 days per calendar week. He was generally very satisfied with the standing device and provided subjective reports of improved spasticity and bowel motility.


CONCLUSIONS
This case report describes a standing and surveillance system that allow quantification of standing dose. Future controlled studies are needed to evaluate whether standing can be beneficially affect secondary complications after SCI.
Shields
Richard K
RK
Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Physical Rehabilitation Science, Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. richard-shields@uiowa.edu
Dudley-Javoroski
Shauna
S
D000328:Adult; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009128:Muscle Spasticity / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011187:Posture; D011788:Quality of Life; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014910:Wheelchairs