Predicting Functional Recovery of Spinal Cord Injured Patients in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Study of an Acute Hospital
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25759/spmfr.490Keywords:
Hospitalization, Recovery of Function, Spinal Injuries/rehabilitationAbstract
Introduction: Evaluate the role of rehabilitation and define which variables are predictive of functional recovery in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), through the measure of independence in spinal cord injury (SCIM).Methods: This is an observational, analytical and retrospective study, developed in a peripheral hospital center for acute patients. The files of all patients hospitalized in this hospital, in the Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) Service, between 2017 and 2022, inclusive, and diagnosed with SCI were gathered. The variables age, gender, etiology and level of SCI, classification of motor injury, duration of hospitalization and SCIM score at admission and discharge were collected and subjected to statistical analysis.
Results: The study sample consists of a total of 38 patients. There was a statistically significant variation (p < 0.05) in the SCIM score between admission and discharge date. The highest percentage of recovery occurred in self-care. There was a positive and moderate correlation between the total SCIM score at discharge, both with the level of injury (ρ = 0.452; p = 0.004) and with the type of motor injury at admission. Patients with incomplete motor lesions had better scores in all subdomains, when compared to patients with complete motor lesions, however, this difference was only statistically significant in the subdomain of respiration and sphincter management (p = 0.006). Regarding the relationship between the SCIM score and the level of injury, it was observed that, both in the total SCIM score and in the subdomains of self-care and mobility, the groups that obtained statistically significant differences between them were the high quadriplegia and the of paraplegia.
Conclusion: There is a significant improvement in all SCIM subdomains between admission date and discharge date. The level of SCI and the type of motor lesion were the only predictive variables of the total SCIM score at discharge, with patients with less severe conditions presenting better scores.
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