Active clinical trials for "Quadriplegia"

Children with cerebral palsy commonly undergo "multilevel surgery", meaning several lower limb combined procedures performed during the same surgical intervention. The aim of this type of surgery is to correct all deformities together in order to restore near to normal anatomy and muscular function. It is very important to be able to obtain good range of motion after surgery, in order to consolidate surgical results. During the first days after the operation, children are sore and it may be difficult to realize adequate physical therapy. In order to palliate this situation, MEOPA gaz is used during REHAB sessions. Good results have been obtained so far but no study is available to demonstrate these results. The goal of our research is to prove that there is a benefit in using MEOPA postoperatively in these patients.

To evaluate improvements in hand function in stable, cervical spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects treated with functional electrical stimulation (FES)-assisted exercise; To compare the information obtained from existing qualitative and quantitative hand function tests with newly developed tests of sensorimotor performance. Hypotheses: the performance of tasks representative of activities of daily living (ADL) will improve with daily tele-supervised exercise of the affected hand. The improvements will be greater in one exercise protocol than the other, the protocols being a) FES-assisted exercise on a workstation, b) cyclical FES, weight training and precision tasks. Scores derived from quantitative data obtained from sensors on the workstation will correlate with the qualitative scores of the primary outcome measure, the ARAT hand function test.

This study evaluates the diaphragmatic reinnervation by inferior laryngeal nerve in tetraplegic patients with ventilatory insufficiency.

The purpose of this research is to test the feasibility of an intervention using biofeedback to treat stress and anxiety among individuals with tetraplegia. The expected duration of participation in this study is about 5 hours over the course of about 5 weeks. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a biofeedback training intervention or a control group. After completing questionnaires, participants will undergo physiological monitoring for the purpose of measuring heart rate and breathing. Those assigned to the biofeedback group will undergo 20 minutes of physiological monitoring while also participating in biofeedback training twice a week for 4 weeks (8 sessions) from home. Those assigned to the control group will undergo 20 minutes of physiological monitoring twice a week for 4 weeks (8 sessions) from home, but will not receive biofeedback training. Each session is expected to last 30 minutes to allow for completion of questionnaires over the the phone prior to and following each training session. It is hypothesized that the biofeedback intervention will demonstrate high feasibility and compared to those in the control group, participants who receive the biofeedback intervention will attain greater pre-post reductions in both physiological and self-reported stress.

Compromised respiratory function as a result of tetraplegia leads to many tetraplegics requiring mechanical ventilation during the acute phase of injury. Mechanical ventilation is associated with additional costs to the local health care provider and reduced quality of life of the patient. Electrical stimulation of the abdominal muscles has previously been used to improve the respiratory function of tetraplegic patients in the chronic stage of injury. In this study the investigators aim to evaluate whether electrical stimulation of the abdominal muscles can assist the process of weaning from mechanical ventilation in acute ventilator dependent spinal cord injured patients.

The purpose of this study is to determine if replacing melatonin function with a melatonin agonist (ramelteon) in individuals that lack endogenous melatonin production (tetraplegia) helps to alleviate self-reported sleep disruption.

This study compared pre-fabricated and custom resting hand splints among people who were in inpatient rehabilitation after a cervical spinal cord injury.

Vibration therapy is a possible alternative to drug-based treatments for spasticity following SCI. Research indicates that it may provide temporary relief from spasticity, but many interventions under investigation are not portable and therefore access is limited. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using a portable vibrating device to decrease UE spasticity.

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) has been used for decades in rehabilitation centers. Having demonstrated efficacy for prevention of muscle atrophy following spinal cord injury (SCI), FES can also be considered for functional restoration of hand movements in the patients with complete tetraplegia belonging to group 0 or 1 of the classification of Giens. However, the majority of the systems using the FES directly stimulates the muscles (surface electrodes, intramuscular or epimysial), which increases the number of components and requires more electrical energy for the muscle activation. Nerve stimulation would activate more muscles through a reduced number of electrodes, limiting the number of internal components, reduces the risk of spreading infections and require less electrical energy for its operation.

People with locked-in syndrome cannot move their limbs or talk because of a motor impairment, but remain conscious and intellectually awake. Restoring the ability to communicate to people with locked-in syndrome will have a positive effect on their quality of life, will enable them to reintegrate into society and increase their capacity to lead productive and fulfilling lives. This study sims to develop a new assisted communication device based on a brain-computer interface, a system that allows the user to control a computer with his brain activity. The investigators will develop this brain-computer system for long-term stability and independent use by using adaptive decoders. The investigators will test the long-term stability and independence of this system with healthy volunteers, people with tetraplegia and people with locked-in syndrome over time periods of several months.