Does body weight supported treadmill training improve walking after incomplete SCI?

Author: SCIRE Community Team | Reviewers: Tania Lam , Shannon Sproule | Published: 29 November 2017 | Updated: ~

Research studies have found that body weight supported treadmill training may help to:

• Improve walking ability in people with chronic incomplete SCI (weak evidence)
• Improve walking to a similar degree as walking off the treadmill at a similar intensity in people with recent incomplete SCI (moderate evidence)
• Improve functional walking in people with incomplete SCI when used together with functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the leg muscles (moderate evidence)

However, the benefits for walking do not appear to be unique to this type of training. Most walking strategies which involve weight-bearing (including walking overground, treadmill walking, and walking with FES) appear to be equally effective at improving walking after incomplete SCI.

Several studies have looked at the effects of body weight supported treadmill training on different aspects of cardiovascular fitness after SCI. Taken altogether, these studies provide early evidence that body weight supported treadmill training helps to improve many aspects of cardiovascular fitness and health in people with complete and incomplete tetraplegia and paraplegia.

In addition to benefits for walking and fitness, body weight supported treadmill training may also have other effects after SCI.

• Body weight supported treadmill training may help to improve spasticity (weak evidence)
• Body weight supported treadmill training may lead to greater life satisfaction and well-being (weak evidence)
• Body weight supported treadmill training has been thought to improve bone density after SCI, however, early research suggests that it may not help to prevent bone loss after SCI (weak evidence).