Contents of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and sports therapy sessions for patients with a spinal cord injury in three Dutch rehabilitation centres

Abstract

Purpose. To describe the contents of interventions to improve self-care and mobility for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) in early post-acute rehabilitation, using the Spinal Cord Injury-Interventions Classification System (SCI-ICS), and to compare these interventions between rehabilitation centres. The SCI-ICS describes therapy to improve self-care and mobility at three levels of functioning and consists of 25 categories with a total of 139 different interventions.

Methods. Fifty-three physical therapists, occupational therapists and sports therapists of three Dutch SCI rehabilitation centres recorded interventions with the SCI-ICS for patients with SCI in early post-acute rehabilitation for four consecutive weeks.

Results. Therapists recorded 1640 treatment sessions of 48 patients with a SCI. The mean number of treatment sessions per patient per week (8.9 overall) differed between centres (p < 0.05), unlike the mean therapy time in minutes per patient per week (259 overall). Highest frequencies for individual categories were found for ‘Muscle Power’, ‘Walking’, and ‘Hand rim wheelchair propulsion’.

Conclusions. We described the specific contents of therapy of patients with a SCI in three Dutch rehabilitation centres. The largest proportion of time was spent on interventions to improve muscle power, walking, and hand rim wheelchair propulsion.

Keywords:

• Therapy
• program evaluation
• comparative studies
• spinal cord injuries

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the physical therapists, occupational therapists, and sports therapists of the Rijndam rehabilitation centre, Rotterdam, the Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, and Rehabilitation centre De Hoogstraat, Utrecht for their enthusiastic participation in this research. The study was financed by Rehabilitation Centre De Hoogstraat, Utrecht, the Netherlands.