Quantifying the magnitude of torque physiotherapists apply when stretching the hamstring muscles of people with spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE

To quantify the magnitude of stretch that physiotherapists apply to the hamstring muscles of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

DESIGN

Repeated-measures design.

SETTING

SCI unit in Australia.

PARTICIPANTS

Fifteen individuals with motor complete paraplegia or tetraplegia.

INTERVENTION: Twelve physiotherapists manually administered a stretch to the hamstring muscles of each subject. The stretch was applied by flexing the hip with the knee extended.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Applied hip flexor torque.

RESULTS

Therapists applied median hip flexor torques of between 30 and 68Nm, although some torques were as large as 121Nm. The stretch applied by different therapists to any 1 subject varied as much as 40-fold.

CONCLUSION

There is a large range of stretch torques provided by physiotherapists to patients with SCI. Some therapists provide stretch torques well in excess of those tolerated by individuals with intact sensation.