Objective: To evaluate the effect of different kind of abdominal corsets on pulmonary function and energy consumption in the patients with cervical spinal cord injury.
Method: Five subjects with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury were enrolled. A quantitative evaluation of vital capacity, tidal volume, and oxygen consumption was done using K4b2 (COSMED, Italy) under following six conditions; 1) supine position without abdominal corset, 2) sitting position without abdominal corset, 3) supine position with non-elastic abdominal corset, 4) sitting position with non-elastic abdominal corset, 5) supine position with elastic abdominal corset, 6) sitting position with elastic abdominal corset. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied for statistical assessment of group difference.
Results: Vital capacity and tidal volume in the condition with elastic abdominal corset were significantly increased than those of the condition without corset (p＜0.05) or of the condition with non-elastic corset (p＜0.01) in both sitting and supine position. Vital capacity and tidal volume in the condition with non-elastic abdominal corset were significantly decreased than those of the condition without corset (p＜0.05) in both sitting and supine position. Oxygen consumption was least in the condition with elastic abdominal corset (p＜0.05).
Conclusion: These results demonstrated that the elastic abdominal corset is beneficial in improving the efficiency of breathing for the patients with cervical spinal cord injury. However, non-elastic abdominal corset is harmful to these patients.
