Body Weight−Supported Treadmill Training After Spinal Cord Injury: Is There An Ideal Prescription For Intervention?

Body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) has created enthusiasm in clinical populations (stroke, cerebral palsy) as a rehabilitation tool to improve over-ground walking ability, which some have claimed to be premature without guidelines for practice.¹ Recently, there has been an interest in using this modality to enhance locomotor recovery following a spinal cord injury (SCI). Research suggests that transfer to unsupported over-ground walking is limited to incomplete SCI.² It can be argued that there are additional benefits from participating in these interventions applicable to both complete and incomplete SCI.³ The following narrative review was conducted to determine whether there is evidence in the literature to support an ideal prescription for the use of BWSTT in SCI rehabilitation. A search of the relevant literature in the areas of biomechanics, neurophysiology, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal physiology, and health psychology was conducted. Evidence was synthesized to develop an integrated perspective regarding the clinical efficacy and effectiveness of BWSTT.