Abstract
Study design
Survey study
Objectives
To understand the priorities and expectations of individuals with disabilities caused by spinal cord injuries(SCI) who require long-term inpatient rehabilitation at a rehabilitation hospital.
Setting
Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital, İstanbul, Türkiye
Methods
This cross-sectional clinical study included individuals over the age of 18 with SCI who had previously been hospitalized in a rehabilitation hospital. The 18-question survey, titled “What should a rehabilitation hospital be like according to persons with spinal cord injuries?” was administered to individuals hospitalized in the inpatient service of Çam Sakura City Hospital. It was also disseminated to people with SCI through social media. The participants’ demographic data was recorded.
Results
The survey was completed by 120 participants, comprising 70 males and 50 females. The mean age was 37.47 ± 11.63 years. The time since the SCI was less than one year for 20 individuals and more than one year for 100 individuals. The results showed that robotic rehabilitation and psychological support were the most requested rehabilitation domains, while interest in sexual rehabilitation was less than that in other rehabilitation domains. Furthermore, in the correlation analysis, elderly participants indicated that there should be more specialized services and outpatient clinics exclusive to the SCI.
Conclusions
The study revealed a striking trend – participants expressed a strong desire for SCI-specific rehabilitation units and robotic rehabilitation. Additionally, the significance and necessity of sexual rehabilitation should be conveyed to people with SCI.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Thietje R, Pouw MH, Schulz AP, Kienast B, Hirschfeld S. Mortality in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury: descriptive analysis of 62 deceased subjects. J Spinal Cord Med. 2011;34:482–7.
Kirshblum S, Brooks M. Rehabilitation of spinal cord injury. In: Gans B, Walsh N, Robinson L, editors. DeLisa’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins; 2010. 665–717
Haisma JA, van der Woude LH, Stam HJ, Bergen MP, Sluis TA, Post MW et al. Complications following spinal cord injury: occurrence and risk factors in a longitudinal study during and after inpatient rehabilitation. J Rehabil Med. 2007;39(5):393-398. https://doi.org/10.2340/16501977-0067.
Yasuda S, Wehman P, Targett P, Cifu DX, West M. Return to work after spinal cord injury: a review of recent research. NeuroRehabilitation. 2002;17:177–86.
Sumida M, Fujimoto M, Tokuhiro A, Tominaga T, Magara A, Uchida R. Early rehabilitation effect for traumatic spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2001;82:391–5.
Maharaj MM, Hogan JA, Phan K, Mobbs RJ. The role of specialist units to provide focused care and complication avoidance following traumatic spinal cord injury: a systematic review. Eur Spine J. 2016;25:1813–20.
Pellatt GC. Patients, doctors, and therapists perceptions of professional roles in spinal cord injury rehabilitation: do they agree? J Interprof Care. 2007;21:165–77.
Melin J, Persson LO, Taft C, Kreuter M. Patient participation from the perspective of staff members working in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Spinal Cord. 2018;56:614–20.
Simpson B, Villeneuve M, Clifton S. The experience and perspective of people with spinal cord injury about well-being interventions: a systematic review of qualitative studies. Disabil Rehabil. 2022;44:3349–63.
Silva FAR, Barbosa MA, Prudente COM, Morais LA, Moraes KL, Vila VSC, et al. Health literacy of people with spinal cord injury: a systematic review. Spinal Cord. 2023;61:409–14.
Parent S, Barchi S, LeBreton M, Casha S, Fehlings MG. The impact of specialized centers of care for spinal cord injury on length of stay, complications, and mortality: a systematic review of the literature. J Neurotrauma. 2011;28:1363–70.
Scheel-Sailer A, Post MW, Michel F, Weidmann-Hügle T, Baumann Hölzle R. Patients’ views on their decision making during inpatient rehabilitation after newly acquired spinal cord injury-A qualitative interview-based study. Health Expect. 2017;20:1133–42.
European Spinal Cord Injury Federation. ESCIF Policy statement on the treatment, rehabilitation and life-long care of persons with spinal cord injuries (SCI). 2008. [Accessed 27 March 2022]. Available from: http://www.escif.org/ESCIFpolicy_statement.htm
Braaf SC, Lennox A, Nunn A, Gabbe BJ. Experiences of hospital readmission and receiving formal carer services following spinal cord injury: a qualitative study to identify needs. Disabil Rehabil. 2018;40:1893–9.
Ronca E, Scheel-Sailer A, Eriks-Hoogland I, Brach M, Debecker I, Gemperli A. Factors influencing specialized health care utilization by individuals with spinal cord injury: a cross-sectional survey. Spinal Cord. 2021;59:381–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-020-00581-6.
McColl MA, Aiken A, McColl A, Sakakibara B, Smith K. Primary care of people with spinal cord injury: scoping review. Can Fam Physician. 2012;58:1207–e635.
Kinnett-Hopkins D, Mummidisetty CK, Ehrlich-Jones L, Crown D, Bond RA, Applebaum MH, et al. Users with spinal cord injury experience of robotic Locomotor exoskeletons: a qualitative study of the benefits, limitations, and recommendations. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2020;17:124.
Gagnon DH, Vermette M, Duclos C, Aubertin-Leheudre M, Ahmed S, Kairy D. Satisfaction and perceptions of long-term manual wheelchair users with a spinal cord injury upon completion of a locomotor training program with an overground robotic exoskeleton. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol. 2019;14:138–45.
Fazekas G, Tavaszi I. The future role of robots in neuro-rehabilitation. Expert Rev Neurother. 2019;19:471–3.
Morone G, Paolucci S, Cherubini A, De Angelis D, Venturiero V, Coiro P, et al. Robot-assisted gait training for stroke patients: current state of the art and perspectives of robotics. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2017;13:1303–11.
Fabbri I, Betti F, Tedeschi R. Gait quality after robot therapy compared with physiotherapy in the patient with incomplete spinal cord injured: A systematic review. eNeurologicalSci. 2023;31:100467.
Cardile D, Calderone A, De Luca R, Corallo F, Quartarone A, Calabrò RS. The quality of life in patients with spinal cord injury: assessment and rehabilitation. J Clin Med. 2024;13:1820. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13061820.
Lohse KR, Hilderman CGE, Cheung KL, Tatla S, Van der Loos HFM. Virtual Reality Therapy for Adults Post-Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Exploring Virtual Environments and Commercial Games in Therapy. Quinn TJ, editor. PLoS ONE. 2014 Mar 28;9:e93318. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3969329/
Ku JH. The management of neurogenic bladder and quality of life in spinal cord injury. BJU International. 2006;98:739–45.
Al Taweel W, Seyam R. Neurogenic bladder in spinal cord injury patients. Res. Rep. Urol. 2015;7:85.
Ozisler Z, Koklu K, Ozel S, Unsal-Delialioglu S. Outcomes of bowel program in spinal cord injury patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction. Neural Regen Res. 2015;10:1153.
Ture SD, Ozkaya G, Sivrioglu K. Relationship between neurogenic bowel dysfunction severity and functional status, depression, and quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med. 2022;1–9.
New PW, Seddon M, Redpath C, Currie KE, Warren N. Recommendations for spinal rehabilitation professionals regarding sexual education needs and preferences of people with spinal cord dysfunction: a mixed-methods study. Spinal Cord. 2016;54:1203–9.
Koyuncu E, Taşoğlu Ö, Özgirgin N. Investigation of sexual function in men with spinal cord injury in a rehabilitation hospital in Turkey. Neurol India. 2022;70:S239–S244. https://doi.org/10.4103/0028-3886.360933.
Celik EC, Akman Y, Kose P, Arioglu P, Karatas M, Erhan B. Sexual problems of women with spinal cord injury in Turkey. Spinal Cord. 2014;52:313–5.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participants who attended in this study. Informed consent was obtained from all participants in this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All the authors conceived and designed the research and conducted the interviews. MA and EC wrote the study protocol, including conceptualization and design. MA, EK and ÖFB collected the data. MA and EK analyzed the data. MA wrote the first draft of the manuscript, directed by EC. The manuscript was then reviewed by MA, EK, ÖFB and EC. All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript accepted for publication.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics
This study was performed in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki. We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations concerning the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during the course of this research. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Bakırkoy Dr. Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital Local Ethics Committee (No: 2020-14-26, dated 07.07.2020). Informed consent forms were obtained from participants at the beginning of the online survey, allowing them to proceed to the survey only if they provided their consent.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Atasoy, M., Kalaoglu, E., Bucak, O.F. et al. “What should a rehabilitation hospital be like?” Priorities and expectations of people with spinal cord injury in Türkiye. Spinal Cord 63, 38–42 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-024-01049-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-024-01049-7
