Active clinical trials for "Spinal Cord Injuries"

The loss of the ability to walk and the associated restriction of mobility presents a major challenge to people with spinal cord injury in an everyday environment designed for pedestrians. Exoskeletal technology has the potential to help people with impaired leg function to regain ambulation and thus improve their independence. This technology is not completely new, but due to their high access price (~120k€/unit), high size and weight (~25 kg), and need for trained physiotherapist supervision, commercially available exoskeletons are only found in large hospitals and only in very few cases get into patients' homes. The company ABLE Human Motion S.L. (Barcelona, Spain) has developed a novel exoskeleton to overcome these disadvantages, which is more compact, lighter and easier to use. The primary objective of the study is to investigate the impact of recent design changes performed on the device on the safety, feasibility and usability of the ABLE exoskeleton device in people with spinal cord injury during a five to six weeks gait training programme in a clinical setting. Furthermore, potential effects of the training on walking, general health status, user satisfaction, and quality of life will be assessed.

The purpose of this study is to test a modified mirror system for female patients to use during self-catheterization.

Bladder and sexual dysfunction consistently ranks as one of the top disorders affecting quality of life after spinal cord injury. The insights of how activity-based training affects bladder function may prove to be useful to other patient populations with bladder and sexual dysfunction such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, and stroke, as well as stimulate investigations of training's effects within other systems such as bowel dysfunction. Locomotor training could help promote functional recovery and any insights gained from these studies will enhance further investigation of the effect of bladder functioning after spinal cord injury. In addition, as suggested by a study of one of our initial participants, a reduction in the use and/or dosage of medication to enhance sexual function is a possible outcome, medications which carry risks and side effects.

A crossover trial with spinal cord injury volunteers will be conducted. Three sessions will be performed once a week in a counterbalanced order and at least with seven days washout period to minimize carry-over effects. In each session, volunteers will be submitted to quantity and quality of sleep, type of eating, fatigue and motivation level, Ashworth scale spasticity, cortical brain activity measures through simple pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (pTMS), spinal cord activity measures through electrical stimulation and non-invasive brain stimulation (rTMS)

The purpose of this study is to determine how exercise and nutritional guidance and supplementation affects your physical fitness, risk for heart disease, your body's ability to burn fat, and your opinions about your health.

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate methods in spinal cord injured individuals to improve reflex urination. Anal dilation will be investigated to reduce high urethral resistance and a vibrator on the patient's bottom will be tested to induce more sustained bladder contractions for better bladder emptying.

The first evidence-based physical activity guidelines for people with spinal cord injury were released in March, 2011. This project will evaluate the implementation of the new physical activity guidelines in a community exercise setting in Hamilton, Ontario. The investigators hypothesize that persons who follow the guidelines will experience increased aerobic fitness and muscle strength. The investigators also hypothesize that participants will find the guidelines easy to follow and that their self-efficacy for participating in physical activity will be improved following the study period.

Balneotherapy is a physiotherapy technique which allows patients to work out in a weightless environment and which is often used in patients with spinal cord injury. In normal subjects, water immersion generates a reduction in lung volumes. The effects of water immersion on the respiratory function of spinal cord injury patient (who are liable to present a respiratory failure secondary to paralysis) are not well known. They could be deleterious (by majoring respiratory failure)or beneficial (by mimicking the effect of a corset and improving respiratory function). Therefore, we are planning to study the effect of different water immersion levels on the respiratory function of spinal cord injury patients.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of creatine monohydrate or vitamin D supplementation on strength gains following a traditional resistance training program for adults with spinal cord injury.

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact on sexuality in women with a spinal cord injury, twelve months after their first return to home, of a program including structured information and education on sexuality, delivered 6 months after their first return to home.