Clinical prognostic factors for bladder function recovery of patients with spinal cord and cauda equina lesions.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between lesion severity and other clinical factors and bladder function recovery.

Patients And Methods: The charts of 269 patients with traumatic and non traumatic spinal cord lesion (SCL) were reviewed and the following information was recorded: lesion to admission time, injury variables, length of stay and neurological status. At five months, urological outcome was assessed by voiding modalities, and urodynamics according to International Continence Society.

Plasticity of spinal centers in spinal cord injury patients: new concepts for gait evaluation and training.

Recent data on spinal cord plasticity after spinal cord injury (SCI) were reviewed to analyze the influence of training on the neurophysiological organization of locomotor spinal circuits in SCI patients. In particular, the authors studied the relationship between central pattern generators (CPGs) and motor neuron pool activation during gait. An analysis of the relations between locomotor recovery and compensatory mechanisms focuses on the hierarchical organization of gait parameters and allows characterizing kinematic parameters that are highly stable during different gait conditions and in recovered gait after SCI.

Utility of delayed spinal cord injury rehabilitation: an Italian study.

The objective was to examine the utility of delayed spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The design was a retrospective study in the spinal unit of a large rehabilitation hospital. The participants were 117 patients at their first rehabilitation admission with an event to admission time of 90 days or more.

Cross-cultural differences in preference for recovery of mobility among spinal cord injury rehabilitation professionals.

Study Design: Direct observation of a constrained consensus-building process in three culturally independent five-person panels of rehabilitation professionals from the US, Italy and Canada.

Objectives: To illustrate cultural differences in belief among rehabilitation professionals about the relative importance of alternative functional goals during spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation.

Setting: Spinal Cord Injury Units in Philadelphia-USA, Rome-Italy and Vancouver-Canada.

Early versus delayed inpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation: an Italian study.

Objective: To examine what effect the injury-to-rehabilitation interval has on the outcome of spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Spinal unit of a large rehabilitation hospital.