Correlação entre a espasticidade, independência funcional e qualidade de vida em pacientes com lesão medular

Abstract

Introduction: Spasticity is the exaggerated increase in muscle tone (hypertonia), caused by trauma or central neurological disease. It is a common condition after neurological changes, such as spinal cord injury (SCI). It can considerably affect the daily activities of the affected individual, as the affected muscle presents tension, involuntary reflexes and limitations. Objective: Correlate spasticity with functionality and quality of life in subject with SCI. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, involving individuals with SCI, followed at the Specialized Rehabilitation Center (CER), of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), Macaíba/RN, carried out between June and October 2022 These were assessed with the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) instrument for spasticity; instrument Spinal Cord Independence Measure – Self-Reported Version (SCIM-SR) for functional independence and instrument World Health Organization Quality of Life-Bref (WHOQOL-Bref) for quality of life (QOL). Data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism version 8 software. Results: Nine individuals with a mean age of 33 (7.4) years participated in the study. The analysis found that the EAM scores were not demonstrated to be statistically significant with the SCIM-SR subsections, the WHOQOL-Bref domains and their initial quality of life questions, demonstrating non-linear clarity. No significant observations were observed between EAM scores with SCIM-SR and WHOQOL-BREF. Conclusion: Although the literature shows a direct relationship between spasticity, QoL and functionality, this study did not find such an association. However, it is important to highlight that the small sample size of this study reduces the precision of the results obtained.