Abstract
Many laboratory demonstrations have been reported on standing or walking with the aid of electrical stimulation. These demonstrations have typically been in small numbers of selected spinal cord injured individuals. The extent to which this technology might ultimately be applicable to the spinal cord injured population at large is not presently known. This study reports estimates of the size of the potential user population of a specific surface electrical stimulation device and protocol. The medical records were reviewed of 192 patients with traumatic thoracic, lumbar, or sacral spinal cord injury resulting in paraplegia. Based on the inclusionary criteria, between 20 and 48 patients (10.4% and 25%) of this sample population could be considered eligible for this surface stimulation protocol. As approximately 45% of the USA population of spinal cord injured individuals have paraplegia, the results suggest that between 4.7% and 11.25% of all spinal cord injured persons in the USA might be potential users of this particular electrical stimulation technology.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
American Spinal Injury Association 1982 Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury. Chicago, USA.
Cybulski G R, Penn R D, Jaeger R J 1984 Lower extremity functional neuromuscular stimulation in cases of spinal cord injury. Neurosurgery 15: 132–146.
Heinemann A, Magiera-Planey R, Schiro-Geist C, Gimenes G 1987 Mobility for persons with SCI: and evaluation of two systems. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 50: 544–547.
Heinemann A, Keen M, Donohue R, Schnoll S 1988 Alcohol use by persons with recent spinal cord injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 69: 619–624.
Jaeger R J, Yarkony G M, Smith R 1989 Standing the spinal cord injured patient by electrical stimulation: refinement of a protocol for clinical use. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (in press).
Kralj A, Bajd T, Turk R, Benko H 1983 Gait restoration in paraplegic patients: a feasibility demonstration using multichannel surface electrode FES. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 20: 3–20.
Kralj A, Bajd T, Turk R, Benko H 1987 Results of FES Application to 71 SCI Patients, Proceedings of RESNA 10th Annual Conference on Rehabilitation Technology (San Jose, CA), pp 645-647.
Marsolais E B, Kobetic R 1987 Functional electrical sitmulation for walking in paraplegia. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery 69A: 728–733.
Stover S L, Fine P R 1986 Spinal Cord Injury the Facts and Figures. Birmingham Alabama, University of Alabama Birmingham Press.
Yarkony G, Jaeger R, Williamson T et al 1987 Standing by Functional Neuromuscular Stimulation in the Laboratory and the Home: Case Reports of 18 Paraplegic Individuals RESNA 10th Annual Conference on Rehabilitation Technology June 19-23, 1987, pp 608–610.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jaeger, R., Yarkony, G., Roth, E. et al. Estimating the user population of a simple electrical stimulation system for standing. Spinal Cord 28, 505–511 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1990.67
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1990.67