The effects of lateral trunk supports (LTS) in special seating on the spinal alignment of 17 spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects with scoliosis were studied using bi-planar radiographs. The LTS improved significantly the functional scoliotic spinal alignment in the frontal and sagittal planes regardless of the severity of scoliosis.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Scoliosis Spinal Cord Injury	Device: Lateral trunk support of wheelchair seating	Phase I

Further Study Details: 

Primary Outcomes: Spinal aligamnet(Cobb angle)
Expected Total Enrollment:  20

SCI patients often develop progressive scoliosis due to loss of muscular support to maintain good sitting posture. Special seating with LTS has been widely used in clinical practice to improve their sitting postures. However, little is known as to how this can affect the scoliotic curve.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of lateral trunk supports (LTS) in special seating on the spinal alignment of spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals with scoliosis.

Ten male and seven female SCI subjects with scoliosis sat on an experimental chair with and without LTS while radiographs of the spine in the anteroposterior and lateral directions were taken. Radiographs of the spine in the A-P and lateral directions were taken with a digital radiographic imaging system (Saturn 9000 M, Comed., Korea). For each direction, the complete image of the spine was obtained from separate x-ray images of the upper and lower trunk due to the limited field of view of the x-ray machine. The Cobb angles and scoliotic indices based on the anteroposterior radiographic images and the angles of the thoracic and lumber spine based on lateral were calculated.

Ages Eligible for Study:  18 Years   -   60 Years,  Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• (1) C4-T12 SCI, (2) onset over 1 year, (3) sitting on the wheelchair more than 4 hours per day, (4) diagnosed thoracic or lumbar scoliosis through A-P radiographs, (5) flexible scoliosis, confirmed by supine and side-lying bending radiographs.

Exclusion Criteria:

• inflexible scoliosis

Taiwan
      School of Occupational Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei,  100,  Taiwan

Study chairs or principal investigators

Hui-Fen Mao, MS,  Principal Investigator,  National Taiwan University   

Study ID Numbers:  9261701245; NSC 91-2314-B-002-393; NSC 92-2314-B-002-084
Last Updated:  September 9, 2005
Record first received:  September 9, 2005
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:  NCT00154505
Health Authority: Taiwan: Department of Health
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on 2005-09-13