Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation in Children With Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Safety, Feasibility, and Efficacy.

Summary

Aim 1: Determine the safety and feasibility of administration of TSCS to children in a clinical setting. Participants will be randomly assigned to experimental (TSCS) or control (sham stimulation) groups. Both groups will receive eight-weeks of individualized gait training. We will measure adverse events, including pain and skin irritation, to determine safety as the primary outcome. Hypothesis 1: Administration of TSCS to children in a clinical setting will be safe based on similar safety outcomes as sham TSCS. Hypothesis 2: TSCS is feasible based on compliance to session interventions and long-term adherence to the protocol. Additionally, we will collect data on effort during sessions of both participant and therapist. We anticipate that the participants will report less effort in the experimental condition, as compared to the control and therapists will report equal effort across conditions. Aim 2: Determine the neurophysiologic impact of TSCS within a single session. We hypothesize that participants will demonstrate increased volitional muscle activity and strength with TSCS as compared to sham stimulation. This will be assessed by surface EMG and hand-held dynamometry of the dominant-side quadriceps muscle during maximum volitional contraction (MVC), across multiple time points. Changes in EMG activity will indicate change in central excitability in response to stimulation. Aim 3: Exploratory measurement of TSCS and gait training on walking function. We hypothesize that concurrent TSCS and gait training will augment walking function in children with iSCI, as compared to gait training with sham stimulation. In addition to outcomes defined above, participants will be assessed with clinically relevant outcome measures, to include the Timed Up and Go, 10-Meter Walk Test, Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury II, and 6-Minute Walk Test. Data collected as part of this aim will elucidate trends in responder qualities and timeline of changes to inform future studies.

Eligibility

Age range

3–16 years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

No

Interventions

• Other
  Gait training with/without TSCS

  To assess the safety and impact of paired stimulation and training on gait in children with iSCI, participants will participate in 24 total sessions. Two sessions will involve assessment only and 22 sessions will include two hours of therapy. Sessions will occur at least three times per week, but may be scheduled as many as five times per week. In each session, participants will receive 60 minutes of treadmill training followed by strengthening, segmental task practice, and gait-based interventions. Participants will receive stimulation based on their group assignment (TSCS or sham).

Location