EFFECTS OF LUMBAR SEGMENTAL STABILIZATION IN PARAPLEGICS’ TRUNK BALANCE

Abstract

Introduction: Paraplegia is an inability of low incidence and high costs, which requires functional changes in the patterns of an individual resulting in trunk imbalance. Objective: To analyze the effect of segmental stabilization on paraplegics’ trunk balance. Material and Methods: This study included five male subjects (31.2  12.93 years) diagnosed with spinal cord injury (T6 to L1). They were submitted to electromyographic evaluation of the lumbar multifidus (LM) and transversus abdominus (TrA) muscles, in addition to TB assessment in two positions (hands on knees and crossed arms), before and after four weeks of lumbar segmental stabilization (LSS) training. The comparisons of the Root Mean Square (RMS) of the EMGs signal and of the displacement of the pressure center (PC) pre- and post-training were conducted on SPSS software (15.0). The Student and Wilcoxon tests were used, with significance level of 5%. Results: There was significant difference in the RMS of the EMGs signal (p=0.043) for the two muscles analyzed (LM and TrA) and in the total displacement of the PC between pre- and post-training, both in the hands on knees position (p=0.014) and in the crossed arms position (p=0.022). Conclusion: The findings showed that the LSS protocol was efficient in improving the balance of the trunk and the activation of the TrA and LM muscles. DESCRIPTORS: Spinal cord. Physiotherapy. Electromyography.