Evaluating associations between trauma-related characteristics and functional recovery in individuals with spinal cord injury

Assessing functional recovery for individuals with spinal cord injury post-discharge from inpatient rehabilitation

Objective: To determine the associations between trauma variables, acute phase-related variables, and patient-level characteristics with functional recovery during the first-year post-discharge from inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF) for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).Design: Retrospective cohort analysis.Setting: Two SCI Model Centers in Pennsylvania, United States.Methods: We were able to link 378 individuals with traumatic SCI between the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Outcomes Study and the National SCI Model Systems databases. Nineteen individuals with SCI were excluded due to missing data. We estimated functional recovery based on changes in functional independence measure (FIM) total motor score during the first-year post-discharge from IRF in 359 individuals with SCI, who did not have any missing data, using ordinary least squares regression (OLS).Results: After discharge from IRF the majority of individuals with SCI improved over the first-year post-injury. Individuals with cervical A-C (injury severity group) who were older had a slight decrease in motor FIM at 1-year post-injury. Regression analysis indicated that lower functional recovery was associated with being of Black and Hispanic race and ethnicity, higher injury severity group, occurrence of non-pulmonary infection during acute care, and longer length of stay at IRF (R2 = 0.36).Conclusions: Patient-level characteristics, trauma variables, and acute phase-related variables were associated with functional recovery post-discharge from IRF. Further research is necessary to collect and assess post-rehabilitation and socio-economic factors that play a critical role in continued functional recovery in the community.

Revisiting functioning recovery in persons with spinal cord injury undergoing first rehabilitation: Trajectory and network analysis of a Swiss cohort study

Information about an individual's functioning and its longitudinal development is key to informing clinical rehabilitation. However, the description and understanding of the detailed longitudinal course of functioning, i.e., functioning trajectories, is rare in the current SCI literature. The aim of this study was to re-estimate previously identified functioning trajectories of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) undergoing initial rehabilitation in Switzerland using trajectory analysis, and to identify highly influential functioning domains that could become trajectory-specific targets for clinical interventions using network analysis. The study was based on data from the Swiss SCI Cohort Study and included individuals with SCI (N = 1099) who completed their rehabilitation in one of four collaborating centers between May 2013 and March 2022. For the trajectory analysis, functioning was operationalized using the total sum score of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure version III (SICM III), which was assessed at up to four time points (T1-T4) during rehabilitation. For the network analysis, individual SCIM III items were used to operationalize relevant functioning problems at T1 (admission) and T4 (discharge). The re-estimation of trajectory analysis confirmed the previously identified mean functioning trajectory classes of stable high functioning (N = 239; 21.75%), early (N = 33; 3.00%), moderate (N = 753; 68.52%), and slow (N = 74; 6.73%) functioning improvement. The network analysis revealed highly connected functioning problems at T1 for the moderate functioning improvement class, including "Feeding", "Dressing upper body", and "Dressing lower body", "Mobility in bed", and "Use of toilet". These functioning domains might indicate potential trajectory-specific targets for clinical interventions. This study has increased our knowledge about functioning trajectories of individuals with SCI undergoing initial rehabilitation in Switzerland and its findings may inform discussions about the application and use of functioning trajectories in clinical practice. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, further research is needed to confirm the findings presented.