Abstract
The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of considering sleep-disordered
breathing (SDB) as a potential confounder to rehabilitation research interventions
in spinal cord injury (SCI). SDB is highly prevalent in SCI, with increased prevalence
in individuals with higher and more severe lesions, and the criterion standard treatment
with continuous positive airway pressure remains problematic. Despite its high prevalence,
SDB is often untested and untreated in individuals with SCI. In individuals without
SCI, SDB is known to negatively affect physical function and many of the physiological
systems that negatively affect physical rehabilitation in SCI. Thus, owing to the
high prevalence, under testing, low treatment adherence, and known negative effect
on the physical function, it is contended that underdiagnosed SDB in SCI may be confounding
physical rehabilitation research studies in individuals with SCI. Studies investigating
the effect of treating SDB and its effect on physical rehabilitation in SCI were unable
to be located. Thus, studies investigating the likely integrated relationship among
physical rehabilitation, SDB, and proper treatment of SDB in SCI are needed. Owing
to rapid growth in both sleep medicine and physical rehabilitation intervention research
in SCI, the authors contend it is the appropriate time to begin the conversations
and collaborations between these fields. We discuss a general overview of SDB and
physical training modalities, as well as how SDB could be affecting these studies.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), LT (locomotor training), MIH (mild intermittent hypoxia), SCI (spinal cord injury), SDB (sleep-disordered breathing)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 16, 2021
Accepted:
August 24,
2021
Received:
August 15,
2021
Footnotes
Disclosures: Gino S. Panza is supported by the Office of Research and Development, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs (grant no. RX002945). The other authors have nothing to declare.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
