Electrical Stimulation and Motor Function Rehabilitation in Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review

Overview

Journal Cureus

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2024 Jul 1

PMID 38947571

Authors

Asterios K Kanakis

Ioannis S Benetos

Dimitrios Stergios Evangelopoulos

John Vlamis

Elias S Vasiliadis

Aikaterini Kotroni

Spyros G Pneumaticos

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to devastating motor impairments, significantly affecting the quality of life of affected individuals. Over the last decades, spinal cord electrical stimulation seems to have encouraging effects on the motor recovery of impacted patients. This review aimed to identify clinical trials focused on motor function recovery through the application of epidural electrical stimulation, transcutaneous electrical stimulation, and functional electrical stimulation. Several clinical trials met these criteria, focusing on the impact of the aforementioned interventions on walking, standing, swimming, trunk stability, and upper extremity functionality, particularly grasp. After a thorough PubMed online database research, 37 clinical trials were included in this review, with a total of 192 patients. Many of them appeared to have an improvement in function, either clinically assessed or recorded through electromyography. This review outlines the various ways electrical stimulation techniques can aid in the motor recovery of SCI patients. It stresses the ongoing need for medical research to refine these techniques and ultimately enhance rehabilitation results in clinical settings.

Citing Articles

Role of Epidural Electrode Stimulation in Three Patients with Incomplete AIS D Spinal Cord Injury.

Chen Y, Huang X, Cheng H, Wu C, Wu M, Yan L Biomedicines. 2025; 13(1).

PMID: 39857740 PMC: 11762847. DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines13010155.

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