Stabilizing leaning postures with feedback controlled functional neuromuscular stimulation after trunk paralysis.

Only three people participated, all with an implanted stimulator already in place, so this does not show what would happen in most people with spinal cord injury. The controller could hold a lean only after the person had already moved into it; it did not move the trunk into the posture or return them upright. It needed manual tuning, partly because system identification was done in a lab chair while the leaning test was done in the participants' own wheelchairs. One participant could not receive added surface stimulation because of a device fault, and lateral and downward reaching did not improve. Lateral reaches either did not improve or decreased, so the workspace gains were mainly forward. Holding a lean was limited by fatigue, with hold times of 117, 112, and 45 seconds. The study measured laboratory outcomes only, and home or community use was not assessed.

Funding came from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, and the work was conducted at a VA medical center. No commercial funding or conflicts of interest are reported.

Do not read this as evidence that trunk control training or electrical stimulation will improve reaching for most people with spinal cord injury. The gains came from a custom implanted stimulation controller tested in three people, and lateral reaches did not improve.