Conus-Cauda Syndrome and flaccid paraplegia in Friuli Venezia Giulia : Data of the Spinal Unit of Udine

The Spinal Unit of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Udine admits patients with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) after discharge from Neurosurgery or Reanimation Divisions. Demographic data, etiology, duration of hospitalization, bladder managements, and mobility at admission and discharge were revisited from January 2000 to March 2008. We treated 49 complete Spinal Cord Injury patients (ASIA Impairment Scale A). The patients have an average age of 38.63 years (range 16 67 years). The ratio between Male and Female was 4 : 1, 40 men e 9 women. All the patients were classified complete respectively to the ASIA Impairment Scale, when no motor or sensory function was preserved in the sacral segment S4-S5. All patients were classified with the Ashworth scale from score 0 to 4. All SCI patients have been treated with conventional rehabilitation strategies for enhancing lower limbs function. At the same time these patients had active exercise for upper limbs and training for daily mobility tasks (transferring, bed mobility and sitting) and functional electrical stimulation. Really we found some difficulties to electrically stimulate denervated muscles, but we believe this approach could give more chances to patients in their recovery. The hope is to realize walking assisted by FES or a combination of this with treadmill and biofeedback training in flaccid paraplegia even in a clinical ambit. This is a good opportunity to engage a long and wide road that leaded us to be partners in the Rise2-Italy Project. A result of this collaboration is the Case Report here presented of the first enrolled person. .