Objective: To examine the influence of social, physical and psychological factors in determining the usage/non usage of reciprocating gait orthosis (RGO) in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.
Design: Prospective clinical trial.
Setting: A large rehabilitation hospital in Rome, Italy.
Participants: Twenty four SCI patients of traumatic aetiology (all fulfilling the criteria to prescribe the device).
Methods: Social, physical and neurological examination according to ASIA standards; psychological enquiry by means of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the scale for self rating anxiety and depression of the Cognitive Behavioural Assessment.
Results: After 1 year follow up 11 (46%) of our patients no longer used the RGO. There was no statistically significant difference between patients who used the RGO and those who rejected the orthosis with regard to social and physical data. There was a significant difference (P=0.005 at the end of training and P=0.003 at 1 year follow up) with regard to functional ambulation level. With regard to psychological enquiry RGO-non users showed a higher frequency of values over the mean in the E scale (extroversion) of the EPQ than RGO-users (P=0.05).
Conclusions: None of the identified parameters were useful to predict the use/rejection of the orthosis. Although they need to be confirmed, our psychological data suggest that extensive psychological testing could be useful to sharpen the ability to predict.