Functional skills after rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injury.

This follow-up study evaluated the functional skills of 151 spinal cord injury persons after comprehensive in-patient rehabilitation. The mean age of subjects was 34.1 years, consisting of 132 males and 19 females. The results indicated that the level of self-care achieved after rehabilitation was maintained by the majority of rehabilitants. The ability of quadriplegics to eat demonstrated the most deterioration, while the ability of quadriparetics and paraparetics to ambulate significantly improved. However, rehabilitants with complete thoracic cord injury were unable to maintain functional ambulation.