Department of Physiotherapy, Isra University, Amman, Jordan.
Department of Human Sciences and Promotion of the Quality of Life, San Raffaele Roma Open University, Rome, Italy.
J Spinal Cord Med. 2023 Jul;46(4):582-589. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2021.2000200. Epub 2021 Dec 2.
Spasticity is one of the most prevalent impairments following spinal cord injury (SCI). It can lead to a decrease in the patient's functional level. Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) has demonstrated motor function improvements following SCI. No systematic reviews were published examining the influences of tSCS on spasticity post-SCI.
This review aimed to investigate the effects of tSCS on spasticity in patients with SCI.
PubMed, SCOPUS, PEDro, CINAHL, MEDLINE, REHABDATA, AMED, and Web of Science databases were searched until June 2021. The Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale was used to assess the methodological quality of the selected studies.
Six studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies were pilot studies, and one was a case series. The scores on the PEDro scale ranged from two to four, with a median score of four. The results showed heterogenous evidence for the effects of tSCS on spasticity reduction post-SCI.
TSCS appears safe and well-tolerated intervention in patients with SCI. The evidence for the effectiveness of tSCS on spasticity in chronic SCI patients is limited. Further randomized controlled studies are strongly needed to study the effects of tSCS on patients with SCI.
痉挛是脊髓损伤（SCI）后最常见的障碍之一。它会导致患者的功能水平下降。经皮脊髓电刺激（tSCS）已被证明能改善 SCI 后的运动功能。目前尚无系统评价研究 tSCS 对 SCI 后痉挛的影响。
本综述旨在探讨 tSCS 对 SCI 患者痉挛的影响。
检索了 PubMed、SCOPUS、PEDro、CINAHL、MEDLINE、REHABDATA、AMED 和 Web of Science 数据库，检索截至 2021 年 6 月。采用物理治疗证据数据库（PEDro）量表评估纳入研究的方法学质量。
符合纳入标准的研究有 6 项。其中 5 项为初步研究，1 项为病例系列研究。PEDro 量表评分为 2 至 4 分，中位数为 4 分。结果显示，tSCS 对 SCI 后痉挛减轻的效果证据存在异质性。
tSCS 似乎是一种安全且耐受良好的 SCI 患者干预措施。tSCS 对慢性 SCI 患者痉挛的有效性证据有限。需要进一步开展随机对照试验研究 tSCS 对 SCI 患者的影响。
