Role of physiotherapy in the mobilization of patients with spinal cord injury undergoing human embryonic stem cells transplantation

BACKGROUND: The major complication faced by patients with chronic static spinal cord injury (SCI) is the loss of mobilization. With the aim to rehabilitate SCI patients, physiotherapy is performed worldwide. However, it only helps the patients to live with their disabilities. An interdisciplinary management involving human embryonic stem cell (hESC) therapy along with physiotherapy as a supportive therapy offers regenerative treatment of the patients with SCI. MAIN BODY: The present study focuses on the role of physiotherapy in the mobilization of patients with SCI (paraplegic 136; tetraplegics 90) undergoing hESC therapy. At admission, patients were assessed on the basis of clinical and American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS), where 153, 32, 36 and 5 patients were designated with AIS score A, B, C and D, respectively. After 8–12 weeks of hESC therapy and physiotherapy, the patients showed clinical and scoring improvement. The patients with AIS score A shifted to B (15.0 %) and C (37.3 %), whereas, patients with grade B moved to C (40.6 %) and D (3.1 %). Patients with AIS score C and D shifted to grade D (13.9 %) and E (60.0 %), respectively. Moreover, orthotic devices were reduced to simpler ones. CONCLUSION: The physiotherapy aided in training of cells and took care of atrophy of limbs, whereas hESC therapy resulted in an overall improvement of the patients with SCI. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40169-016-0122-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.