Article

A cross-sectional experimental study. The purpose of
this study is to examine the benefit of elastic abdominal binders on voluntary
cough in persons with spinal cord injury. SETTING: Spinal rehabilitation unit in
a teaching hospital. METHODS: We measured voluntary cough peak expiratory flow
rate (in 21 subjects with spinal cord injury, (18 tetraplegia, 3 paraplegia)
under three conditions: without abdominal binder as the baseline, with
single-strap abdominal binder and triple-strap abdominal binder. RESULTS: The
results showed that the mean cough peak expiratory flow rate in all subjects
without abdominal binder was 277.1 l per min. There was a significant increase in
flow rate with the use of abdominal binders: 325.7 l per min with single-strap
abdominal binder and 345.2 l per min with triple-strap abdominal binder (P<0.05,
paired t-test). The mean cough peak expiratory flow rate in tetraplegic subjects
using triple-strap abdominal binders was significantly higher compared with those
using single-strap abdominal binders (322.1 l per min and 299.4 l per min,
respectively). CONCLUSION: Abdominal binders can be used as an effective method
to improve cough ability in spinal cord injured patients, with triple-strap
abdominal binder achieving greater cough peak expiratory flows.

Langue : ANGLAIS