title: Changes of functional outcomes according to the degree of completeness of spinal cord injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether an initial complete impairment of spinal cord injury (SCI) contributes to the functional outcome prediction, we analyzed the relationship between the degree of complete impairment according to the American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS), the posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potential (PTSEP) and the changes of functional indices.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty subjects with SCI were studied who received rehabilitative management for over 2 months. The degree of completeness on basis of the initial AIS and PTSEP were evaluated at the beginning of rehabilitation. Following treatment, several functional indices, such as walking index for spinal cord injury version II (WISCI II), spinal cord independence measure version III (SCIM III), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and Modified Barthel Index (MBI), were evaluated until the index score reached a plateau value.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The recovery efficiency of WISCI and BBS revealed a statistically significant difference between complete and incomplete impairments of initial AIS and PTSEP. The SCIM and MBI based analysis did not reveal any significant differences in terms of the degree of AIS and PTSEP completeness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AIS and PTSEP were highly effective to evaluate the prognosis in post-acute phase SCI patients. BBS and WISCI might be better parameters than other functional indices for activities of daily living to predict the recovery of the walking ability in post-acute SCI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyo Sang
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyung Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Myeong Ok
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Postural balance; Somatosensory evoked potentials; Spinal cord injuries; Walking