The benefits of hydrotherapy to patients with spinal cord injuries

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The benefits of hydrotherapy to patients with spinal cord injuries
 
Creator Ellapen, Terry J. Hammill, Henriëtte V. Swanepoel, Mariëtte Strydom, Gert L.
 
Subject rehabiltation Hydrotherapy; spinal cord injury; rehabilitation
Description Background: Many patients with spinal cord injury (PWSCI) lead sedentary lifestyles, experiencing poor quality of life and medical challenges. PWSCI don’t like to participate in land-based-exercises because it’s tedious to perform the same exercises, decreasing their rehabilitative compliance and negatively impacting their well-being. An alternative exercise environment and exercises may alleviate boredom, enhancing compliance.Objectives: Discuss the benefits of hydrotherapy to PWSCI concerning underwater gait-kinematics, thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses and spasticity.Methodology: A literature surveillance was conducted between 1998 and 2017, through the Crossref meta-database and Google Scholar, according to the PRISMA procedures. Key search words were water-therapy, aquatic-therapy, hydrotherapy, spinal cord injury, rehabilitation, human, kinematics, underwater gait, cardiorespiratory, thermoregulation and spasticity. The quality of each paper was evaluated using a modified Downs and Black Appraisal Scale. The participants were records pertaining to PWSCI and hydrotherapy. The outcomes of interest were: hydrotherapy interventions, the impact of hydrotherapy on gait-kinematics, thermoregulation during water submersion and cardiorespiratory function of PWSCI. Omitted records included: non-English publications from before 1998 or unrelated to hydrotherapy and PWSCI. The record screening admissibility was performed as follows: the title screen, the abstract screen and the full text screen.Results: Literature search identified 1080 records. Upon application of the exclusion criteria, 92 titles, 29 abstracts and 17 full text records were eligible. Only 15 records were selected to be included in this clinical commentary. Evidence shows a paucity of randomised control trials (RCT) conducted in this field.Conclusion: Hydrotherapy improves PWSCI underwater gait-kinematics, cardiorespiratory and thermoregulatory responses and reduces spasticity.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2018-05-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Review
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v7i0.450
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 7 (2018); 8 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/450/813 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/450/812 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/450/814 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/450/807
 
Coverage South Africa; North-West 1998-2007 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2018 Terry J. Ellapen, Henriëtte V. Hammill, Mariëtte Swanepoel, Gert L. Strydom https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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