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The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions
Bowel function after spinal cord injury (SCI) is compromised because of a lack of voluntary control and reduction in bowel motility, often leading to incontinence and constipation not easily managed. Physical activity and upright posture may play a role in dealing with these issues. We performed a t...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7957745/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33801165 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050964 |
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author | Gorman, Peter H. Forrest, Gail F. Asselin, Pierre K. Scott, William Kornfeld, Stephen Hong, Eunkyoung Spungen, Ann M. |
author_facet | Gorman, Peter H. Forrest, Gail F. Asselin, Pierre K. Scott, William Kornfeld, Stephen Hong, Eunkyoung Spungen, Ann M. |
author_sort | Gorman, Peter H. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Bowel function after spinal cord injury (SCI) is compromised because of a lack of voluntary control and reduction in bowel motility, often leading to incontinence and constipation not easily managed. Physical activity and upright posture may play a role in dealing with these issues. We performed a three-center, randomized, controlled, crossover clinical trial of exoskeletal-assisted walking (EAW) compared to usual activity (UA) in people with chronic SCI. As a secondary outcome measure, the effect of this intervention on bowel function was assessed using a 10-question bowel function survey, the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSS) and the Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Bowel Management Difficulties instrument. Fifty participants completed the study, with bowel data available for 49. The amount of time needed for the bowel program on average was reduced in 24% of the participants after EAW. A trend toward normalization of stool form was noted. There were no significant effects on patient-reported outcomes for bowel function for the SCI-QOL components, although the time since injury may have played a role. Subset analysis suggested that EAW produces a greater positive effect in men than women and may be more effective in motor-complete individuals with respect to stool consistency. EAW, along with other physical interventions previously investigated, may be able to play a previously underappreciated role in assisting with SCI-related bowel dysfunction. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7957745 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79577452021-03-16 The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions Gorman, Peter H. Forrest, Gail F. Asselin, Pierre K. Scott, William Kornfeld, Stephen Hong, Eunkyoung Spungen, Ann M. J Clin Med Article Bowel function after spinal cord injury (SCI) is compromised because of a lack of voluntary control and reduction in bowel motility, often leading to incontinence and constipation not easily managed. Physical activity and upright posture may play a role in dealing with these issues. We performed a three-center, randomized, controlled, crossover clinical trial of exoskeletal-assisted walking (EAW) compared to usual activity (UA) in people with chronic SCI. As a secondary outcome measure, the effect of this intervention on bowel function was assessed using a 10-question bowel function survey, the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSS) and the Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Bowel Management Difficulties instrument. Fifty participants completed the study, with bowel data available for 49. The amount of time needed for the bowel program on average was reduced in 24% of the participants after EAW. A trend toward normalization of stool form was noted. There were no significant effects on patient-reported outcomes for bowel function for the SCI-QOL components, although the time since injury may have played a role. Subset analysis suggested that EAW produces a greater positive effect in men than women and may be more effective in motor-complete individuals with respect to stool consistency. EAW, along with other physical interventions previously investigated, may be able to play a previously underappreciated role in assisting with SCI-related bowel dysfunction. MDPI 2021-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7957745/ /pubmed/33801165 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050964 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Gorman, Peter H. Forrest, Gail F. Asselin, Pierre K. Scott, William Kornfeld, Stephen Hong, Eunkyoung Spungen, Ann M. The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title | The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title_full | The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title_fullStr | The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title_full_unstemmed | The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title_short | The Effect of Exoskeletal-Assisted Walking on Spinal Cord Injury Bowel Function: Results from a Randomized Trial and Comparison to Other Physical Interventions |
title_sort | effect of exoskeletal-assisted walking on spinal cord injury bowel function: results from a randomized trial and comparison to other physical interventions |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7957745/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33801165 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10050964 |
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