洗濯物を3枚以上干すことが困難であった中心性頸髄損傷後の症例

抄録

The present case, a woman in her 70s, slipped while pruning a tree branch and fell 3 meters. She was unable to move due to neck pain and was taken to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a central cervical spinous cord injury, a 4th cervical spinous process fracture, and a 5th cervical spinous process fracture. Later, when the patient was hanging laundry, she found it difficult to lift a hanger with clothes with one hand and to hang three or more clothes at a time. In an examination of the movement of hanging the laundry with shoulder flexion, upward rotation of the scapula at the acromioclavicular joint was found to occur as the right shoulder joint flexion angle increased. Shoulder flexion by the patient was difficult due to weakness of the right shoulder flexor muscle and supraspinatus muscle. In addition, due to weakness of the right scapular abduction and upper rotator muscles, the patient could not reach forward when raising her upper limbs. Therefore, although the movement was performed utilizing the trunk and shoulder girdle, only three clothes could be hung at a time, and the time required for hanging the laundry increased. We prescribed exercises for strengthening the right shoulder flexor and supraspinatus muscles, and right scapula abduction and upper rotator muscles. Subsequently, no compensatory movements of the trunk and shoulder girdle were observed. Moreover, the right shoulder joint flexed and the acromioclavicular joint rotated upward, and 80 pieces of laundry could be dried on the laundry pole.