A case of cerebral contusion with improved stability by focusing on thoracic spine motion in standing up movement

Abstract

The patient was a woman in her 80s with a diagnosis of cerebral contusion. She had difficulty with smooth the buttocks release and showed a decrease in stability when getting up from the bed. Detailed observation of the flexion phase to the buttocks release phase revealed that the thoracic spine remained flexed just before the buttocks release phase, and no ext ension occurred. There were few previous studies on the thoracic spine in standing-up motions, and it was difficult to clarify the functional impairment. Therefore, we conducted some detailed examinations of spinal motion during the flexion phase in normal subjects. The results showed that physiotherapy for the longissimus longus muscle resulted in thoracic extension just before the buttocks release, which enabled a smooth the buttocks release and improved the stability.