How effective is Locomotor Training?

Hi everyone,
I am currently a college student in the UK and have applied to study for Physiotherapy in Sept 2011. To support my Uni application I have started and EPQ (Extended Project Qualification).

My topic is looking into spinal cord injuries and treatment. Through me research I have come across a form of treadmill training- Locomotor Training which seems popular in America where is has been used.

Can anyone help me please. Are there any statistics avaliable for the general public (i.e. me) where I don't have to pay a heafty fee to access research results?

Is anyone able to answer some further questions such as the benefits, negatives and cost of treatment if I sent out a short questionnaire?

Many thanks in advance for your help, I really appreciate it!:)

Hi Smiler 404

Here are a few suggstions:

A cochrane review of locomotor Therpy and SCI.

Locomotor training for walking after spinal cord injury

The Cochrane collaboration is one of the best and most reliable sources of summary info on effectveness for treatment. It is run as not- for-profit and it provides systematic reviews ( and meta-anales where thy can be done) ormedical and alliedhealth institutions. So you are in luck that a good review is provided. Younshould be able to access the full report for free ( depends on your country) and his link should take you to it. If you have difficulty downloading the report thenlet me know.

There is a plain english summary for this report and the do this in order toinform yht public. However as you are going beyond this it would impress your markers if you could accurately interpret tjis report. So this is where you shuld learn something about evidence-based practice for therapies so you can demonstrate to your readers you knowwhat you are taking about. I warn you EBP is qquite involved but if you can show your readers that you know how to read and interpret a systematic review then that should get you a lot of extra marks. If you want help with finding resources on EBP then let me know.

PEDro is a great free database for clinical trials, systematic reviews and practice guidelines for physiotherapy. So have a look at it. Whenyou do a search just keep it real simple eg Just enter "locomotor" and "spinal" in the simple search query. There are hyperlinks to the full texts but if it is a subsribed journal then you can't access it. However at least you will know hat is available. You may be able to access a really good article through your school library if you think it is worth looking at. If thre is. Medical school in your town you may be able to order the rticle or photocopy the artcle at a fraction ofbthe price, if they will give you access.

http://www.pedro.org.au/

Other databades to check and which are free are google scholar and pubmed. Pubmed gives you access to medline - the largest medical database in the world

I would advise you not to dp a questionnare or survey of people with SCI. You wll get yourself in hot water as this requires ethics approval. Patintscare particularly vulnerable to the abuses of research so theyre protected by etics committees. No ethis committee would grant a school student approval and anyway an application is long and involved. Instead i would suggest you concentrate on accessing and reviewing the professional literature.

There are a variety of methods available so why not do some searching of compnies offering equpment. For example at the very high tech end of the market are rootically controlled gait trainers to simpler harnesses that can be used on treadmill or overland.

See if you can arrange a visit to a physio service in a spinal cord rehab unit. Nothing like seeing it in action. You may be able to take some photos or a video but ask permission from the service and if you want to take pictures ofpatients you may need written permission and orgnise it so their identity is protected eg no face shots

Finally congratulatoons on choosing physio - a great choice of career and the topic area - neurogical rehab is particularly intersting andrewarding area to work in

Hi gcoe,

Thank you so much for your quick reply! I really appreciate it as you have given some useful tips and advice.
I will let you know how I get on with the websites that you recommended as I'm planning on working more on my project over the weekend- I want to get exams this week out of the way first!

I totally agree with you, I can't wait to train and qualify as a Physiotherapist. I've done a lot of work experience shadowing Physio's and I've seen they can make such a difference to patients life and do an incredible job.

Anyway, thank you once again,
Smiler 404