Wheelchair Indoors Curling With SCI patients_RCT (SCI-RCT)

The Effects of Indoors Curling Exercise in Persons With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury on Control Capabilities of Trunk Movements: a Randomized-controlled Trial.

This study investigates if, patients with diagnosed chronic spinal cord injury will benefit from an Indoor Curling Exercise program on their control capabilities of trunk movements and on their intrinsic motivation for physical activity. Half of participants will receive 8 training-sessions during 4 weeks, while the other will receive usual care.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a catastrophic event that can be devastating and costly in human and social terms. These patients require multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary treatment. Physiotherapy is important factor in SCI rehabilitation. The objectives of physiotherapists are manifold and include the development of the force of healthy muscles, the teaching of transfer techniques, the maintenance of joint motion and of the body map, and the reestablishment of sitting balance in order for the patients to regain their autonomy. Maintaining postural stability when seated is a challenge for people with a SCI as their sensory and motor systems in their trunk, lower and upper extremities have been damaged to different degrees. To train this postural stability, physiotherapists include many interventions. Physical activities in sport therapy are some of them. In addition to usual physical activities (basketball, tennis, wheelchair running,…) the investigators propose to practice wheelchair Indoors Curling Exercise with wooden Curling Stones.

Control capabilities of trunk movement (6-channel inertial sensor by 25 cycles per minute, back-and-forth trunk movements), Modified Functional Reach Test

Inclusion Criteria: Traumatic, non-traumatic or ischemic Spinal Cord Injury with complete or incomplete para- or tetraplegia Complete spinal cord status (ASIA Score) Sitting capabilities ≥ 4 hours Capability to bench 20° forward in trunk flexion Signed informed consent after being informed Exclusion Criteria: Progressives pathologies Problem in vestibular system Severely impaired vision Tetraplegia without hand function Acute pain Contraindications on ethical grounds Previously reduced capabilities of cooperation Know or suspected non-compliance