Content - Volume 41, Issue 13

A number of papers has been published in recent years on aspects of publication specifically related to Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM). There are a number of specific problems in research design in rehabilitation, especially when it comes to randomized controlled studies. Some of these problems are discussed in this Editorial. Moreover, some of the information presented at the last con ...

Rationale: Rehabilitation clinicians need to stay current regarding best practices, especially since adherence to clinical guidelines can significantly improve patient outcomes. However, little is known about the benefits of knowledge translation interventions for these professionals. Objectives: To examine the effectiveness of single or multi-component knowledge translation interventions for ...

Why do people not always do the right thing, when it is quite clear what it is? This fundamental question (as every parent asks when their children cross the road without looking) is approached by Menon et al. (1). Similar thoughts enter the mind of the physician when the patient with an ischaemic stroke continues to smoke after discharge with full knowledge of the harm it causes. Since the Cochra ...

Objective: To provide strategies to assist healthcare professionals in the area of rehabilitation to improve prevention of falls. Design: A conceptual framework is described as a foundation for the proposal of 2 intertwined strategies, of intervention and implementation, which target the questions: Which strategies for intervention represent the current best evidence? and: How can these strategi ...

Objective: To determine the time course of functional health status, and to inventory impairments in body functions, limitations in activities, and restrictions in participation after critical illness. Design: Prospective observational cohort study. Setting: Mixed medical and surgical closed format; intensive care unit of an academic medical hospital. Patients: Consecutive patients over a pe ...

Objective: The interhemispheric competition model proposes that the functional recovery of motor deficits in patients after stroke can be achieved by increasing the excitability of the affected hemisphere or decreasing the excitability of the unaffected hemisphere. We investigated whether bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation might improve the paretic hand in patients after stroke ...

Objective: To investigate the psychometric properties of the Rivermead Motor Assessment by Rasch analysis and conventional statistics to improve its clinical utility. Methods: A total of 107 patients after stroke were evaluated using the Rivermead Motor Assessment and Functional Independence Measure (FIMTM). Scaling properties were assessed using Mokken scaling, internal construct validity using ...

Objective: To report self-rated health and factors influencing health after traffic-related mild traumatic brain injury. Design: Population-based, cross-sectional study of traffic-related mild traumatic brain injury occurring between 1 December 1997 and 31 November 1999 in Saskatchewan, Canada. Subjects: Subjects were 929 adults making a personal injury claim after a traffic collision. Inclusi ...

Objective: To determine factors influencing disease-management self-efficacy in individuals with spinal cord injury. Design: A cross-sectional study. Subjects/patients: Forty-nine community-dwelling individuals with chronic spinal cord injury (mean age 44 years) participated in the study. Methods: Each subject was evaluated for disease-management self-efficacy (Self-efficacy for Managing Chr ...

Objective: To identify the extent to which early participation and environmental variables, when assessed at discharge from hospital, add to injury and demographic variables in the prediction of employment following traumatic spinal cord injury. Design: Prospective study in which participants were assessed on a range of injury, demographic, participation and environmental measures at discharge f ...

Study design: Descriptive, cross-sectional study. Objective: To assess the relationship between spasticity and bone mineral density in the lower extremities in individuals with a motor complete spinal cord injury. Methods: Eighteen individuals, matched for time since injury, gender, and age, were included in the study. Nine men had severe spasticity, and 9 men had spasticity that was either mi ...

Objective: The aims of this study were: (i) to investigate the effect of functional magnetic stimulation on total colonic transit time in patients with Parkinson’s disease; (ii) to compare the changes in dynamic recto-anal behaviour during filling and defaecation in response to this regimen; and (iii) to study the carry-over effects with a 3-month follow-up. Design: A longitudinal, prospective ...

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of pulsed signal therapy in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (Kellgren II or III). Methods: A randomized, double-blind controlled clinical trial. The first 95 patients sent to the clinic with knee osteo­arthritis were selected and randomized into treatment with pulsed signal therapy or conventional physiotherapy. Assessment included recording of usual ...

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare activities of daily living and cognitive function after 6 months’ rehabilitation training with or without ventriculoperitoneal shunt in patients with chronic normal pressure hydrocephalus following aneurysm subarachnoid haemorrhage. Patients and Methods: Thirty-nine subjects diagnosed with chronic normal pressure hydrocephalus following aneurysm ...

Background: Pressure sores are a significant secondary complication in spinal cord injured patients. A new indication for botulinum toxin type A is described here, in treatment of recurrent muscular spasms that had hampered the healing of a chronic buttock ulcer in a subject with severe spastic paraplegia. Case report: A 27-year-old man with spastic paraplegia following traumatic spinal cord les ...

Sir, I commend Grotle et al. (1) for their efforts in adapting the Patient Experiences Questionnaire (PEQ) to create an instrument that can be utilized within the rehabilitation setting for rheumatological patients: the Rehabilitation Patient Experiences Questionnaire (Re-PEQ). Patient’s perception of the quality of care delivered is a an overlooked domain in the evaluation of a healthcare’s ...

Sir, A special edition of the Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine devoted to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) describes the unifying nature of this classification. It also explores its usefulness for integrating diverse aspects of human functioning (1). This is certainly the case for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) classifications of human f ...