Respiratory Function after Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Survival rates and medical care following spinal cord injury (SCI) have improved largely over the last decades and have resulted in a decline of mortality during the first 2 years after injury. The mortality rates in the period thereafter have not changed substantially. Respiratory diseases, particularly lower tract respiratory infections, remain a common cause of early death and hospitalization in persons with chronic SCI. Therefore, in this thesis we focused on respiratory function after SCI. We studied changes in respiratory function, the prevalence of impaired respiratory function and consequences in the early years after inpatient rehabilitation. In addition, we studied the effects of a specific respiratory training program added to the usual inpatient rehabilitation treatment. For the first part of this thesis we used data of a Dutch multicenter prospective cohort study (the Umbrella and SPIQUE project). For the second part we conducted a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effects of resistive inspiratory muscle training (RIMT).