Effects of Activity Based Therapy on Upper Limb Strength and Transfer in Spinal Cord Injury Patients

In our society spinal cord injury is a major problem.activity based therapy and conventional therapy has a potentional to improve upper limb strength and transfer in tetraplegic patients. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of activity based therapy versus conventional therapy to improve the upper limb strength and transfer in spinal cord injury. The study design used was randomized clinical trial. The study was conducted at the paraplegic center Peshawar in 6 weeks after the approval of synopsis. A sample size of 16 participants was taken with complete and incomplete spinal cord injury received using lottery method. Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups. Group A was treated with activity based therapy + baseline therapy and group B was treated with conventional therapy + baseline therapy. 8 subjects in each group. Pre and post treatment evaluation were done by using Spinal cord independence measure scale (SCIM) and International standards for neurological classification of spinal cord injury upper extremity measurement scale (ISNCSCI- UEMS). Post spinal cord independence measure activity based group mean 26.87±12.87 and conventional group mean 31.50±23.82. The results indicate that conventional therapy and activity based therapy both are helpful in improving upper limb strength and transfer total spinal cord independence measure pre sig.0.96 and post sig.0.57. Both activity based therapy and conventional therapy equally effective for improving the upper limb strength and transfer in spinal cord injury. entional therapy.