J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2009 Oct;33(5):614-618.

Impact of Sitting Time on Seat-Interface Pressure of Spinal Cord Injured Patients

• Kim DA
• Yi SH
• Lee BS
• Lim MH
• Ryu BJ
• Kim HC
• Yang HC

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To examine changes in seat-interface pressure in wheelchair seated spinal cord injured patients. METHOD: Twenty-six spinal cord injured patients, who were motor complete tetraplegic and paraplegic patients, were included in this study. After 5 cm air-filled cushion (ROHO(R)) was placed on their own wheelchair seat, patients were seated on wheelchair with neutral position for sixty minutes. The interface pressure and contact area of buttock was measured every 5 minutes.
RESULTS
Significant increases of interface pressure were found in maximal and mean interface pressure during 0 to 25 minutes of sitting (p<0.05). An increased tendency of contact area of buttock was observed during sitting time but it was not significant.
CONCLUSION
There were no significant changes of interface pressure after 25 minutes of sitting in spinal cord injured patients. Therefore, twenty-five minutes may be a reasonable sitting time before interface pressure is recorded.

Keyword

Seating; Spinal cord injury; Pressure; Time

MeSH Terms

Buttocks
Humans
Spinal Cord
Spinal Cord Injuries
Wheelchairs