Article

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes devastating loss of function and can
result in serious secondary complications. Although significant advances are
being made to develop cellular and molecular therapies to promote regeneration,
it is important to optimize physical interventions. The objective of
this review was to examine the evidence for the effects of physical
rehabilitation strategies on health and fitness, and maintenance of target
systems below the level of injury (for example, muscle, bone, circulation).
RESULTS: Exercise appears to be a potent means of achieving these goals, using a
variety of strategies. CONCLUSION: Physical rehabilitation after SCI needs to
move beyond the goal of maximizing independence to focus on maintenance of
optimum health and fitness as well as maintenance of target system function below
the level of injury. Issues requiring further investigation include
identification of the optimum dosage of interventions to achieve specific goals,
for example, prevention of muscle atrophy and osteoporosis, and development and
validation of simple clinical measures to monitor the changes in body
composition. Adoption of a classification system for physical interventions and
standardized outcome measures would facilitate large-scale observational studies
to identify the critical variables contributing to better outcomes.

Langue : ANGLAIS