ABSTRACT
The living situation of 151 people (136 males and 15 females) with spinal cord injury (SCI) who had completed rehabilitation were surveyed. The average age of the respondents was 34 years with 99 percent living in a private residence, and 87.3 percent remaining married. Of 92 subjects who could not walk, 13 percent could not use a wheelchair in their houses because of structural obstacles. In the case of cervical cord and cauda equine injuries, those with incomplete injuries were able to go out more than those who had complete injuries. Only two persons had special cars for the disabled. Of those who were working at the time of their injury, 49 percent regained employment. The factors influencing their employment were the severity of the spinal cord injury and their ability to walk.
ABSTRACT
The use of bracing was studied in 76 patients with spinal injuries by a questionnaire survey. A total of 37 responses were deemed to be complete and acceptable. The responses included 35 males and 2 females, whose ages ranged from 19 to 56 years (mean = 30.6 years, SD = 9.7). Only 11 of the whole group (29.7 percent) were still using braces at the time of the study. All the spinal injury patients in this group used braces for exercise, while the cauda equine cases also used braces for ambulating. Inconvenience was the main reason for discontinuing the use of braces by the spinal injury patients. However, some of the cauda equine injury patients were able to ambulate without braces, while the others considered braces to be cumbersome and useless. The results of the resent study indicate that bracing should be prescribed at a later stage, after patients had returned home and require it for use in their home environments. This would make brace prescription more effective and appropriate for each patient.