A Systematic Methodology to Analyze the Impact of Hand-Rim Wheelchair Propulsion on the Upper Limb

Manual wheelchair propulsion results in physical demand of the upper limb extremities that, because of its repetitive nature, can lead to chronic pathologies on spinal cord injury patients. The aim of this study was to design and test a methodology to compare kinematic and kinetic variables of the upper limb joints when propelling different wheelchairs. Moreover, this methodology was used to analyze the differences that may exist between paraplegic and tetraplegic patients when propelling two different wheelchairs. Five adults with paraplegia and five adults with tetraplegia performed several propulsion tests. Participants propelled two different wheelchairs for three minutes at 0.833 m/s (3 km/h) with one minute break between the tests. Kinematic and kinetic variables of the upper limb as well as variables with respect to the propulsion style were recorded. Important differences in the kinetic and kinematic variables of the joints of the upper limb were found when comparing paraplegic and tetraplegic patients. Nevertheless, this difference depends on the wheelchair used. As expected, in all tests, the shoulder shows to be the most impacted joint.