Pilot project uses physical therapy to treat spinal cord injury

Can people with partial spinal cord injuries regain movement, balance, and perhaps even the ability to walk several steps through intensive physical therapy?

That's the question Stacy Fritz hopes to answer through a new project funded by the S.C. Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund. Fritz, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Exercise Science, plans to work with 16 clients during the next two years, most of whom have exhausted their regular insurance benefits for physical therapy related to their injuries.

"Most people with incomplete spinal cord injuries have something spared--some ability to stand for a short time or to sit up and move from bed to chair," Fritz said. "What would happen if we bombard them with intensive therapy for several hours a day? Will it help them regain some of what was lost?"

To join the program, clients must be able, with assistance, to stand for two minutes and walk 10 feet. Fritz and her team concentrate on improving gait, balance, and mobility by working with the clients for three hours a day for 10 days. The sessions, held in the Arnold School of Public Health's new research center, put participants on a treadmill for hours, suspended in place by straps and simulating a walking motion to improve their sensations of gait and balance.

The therapy also works on improving simple transition movements--from bed to chair, for example--that might make it easier for participants and their caregivers to perform such tasks after the therapy concludes. Participants go home with with the knowledge of new activities to continue to work on improving physical abilities.

"Our main goal is to get them upright. To be able to take a few steps is a huge improvement if you're not able to take any at all," Fritz said. "And by being upright, you might see major improvements in bone density and blood pressure regulation."

If Fritz's therapy program proves to be beneficial, she plans to apply to the Christopher Reeves Foundation for additional funding.

"The amount of therapy that insurance will pay for following spinal cord injury has gotten shorter, sometimes less than a month," Fritz said. "So much of that therapy is compensatory--helping clients to find new ways of doing things to accommodate their injury. We'd like to focus more time on recovery--actually helping patients regain what they've lost. That's what this project hopes to do."

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