Abstract: ObjectiveTo evaluate the relationship between the level of thoracic complete spinal cord injury(SCI) and ambulatory function wearing Reciprocating Gait Orthosis(RGO) through three dimentional gait analysis, and to explore the quantitative indicators of reconstructing walking capacity of thoracic complete SCI patients.Methods10 patients with thoracic complete spinal cord injury of lesion level from T₄ to T₁₂ who had experienced RGO gait training for at least 3 months. Three dimentional gait analysis system of Vicon Nexus 1.2 was used to test and examine the gait speed, cadence, stride length, pelvic angle of rotation, hip range of motion(ROM), crutch force, angular velocity of hip flexion and extension phases, etc. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient and Spearman rank correlation coefficient were used to examine the relationship between the level of spinal cord injury and the kinematic and kinetic values.ResultsThe mean cadence and stride length were (37.4±2.15) steps/min and (91.6±9.09) cm. The mean hip ROM, angular velocity of hip flexion and extension phases were (42.57 °±5.43 °), (20.88 °±2.18 °)/s and (124.75 °±9.31 °)/s respectively. The gait speed, stride length, peak crutch force, hip ROM, mean crutch force and angular velocity of hip extension phase all had significant pertinence with the level of spinal cord injury.ConclusionThe limitation of hip ROM and excessive load of upper limbs mainly result in ambulatory disorder in higher thoracic complete SCI patients who should be undertaken some rehabilitation training to reduce excessive physiological load in order to improve their ambulatory capacity.

Key words: three dimentional gait analysis, spinal cord injury(SCI), kinematics, time-spatial parameter, reciprocating gait orthosis(RGO)