Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital U tilizing biofeedback for paralysis, Neuromuscular Rehabilitation Services at Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital provides a window of hope for many patients who have experienced non-progressive neuromuscular injury and have plateaued with conventional therapies alone. It can also enhance progress in patients actively improving with traditional therapies. Pioneered by Dr. Bernard Brucker, University of Miami, Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, this program allows the nervous system to learn new ways of connecting to affected muscles. Computer assisted surface EMG monitoring allows the patient and therapist to see when the nervous system is correctly reconnecting to the muscles.
Patients then learn to repeat the desired process to begin movement.
When Bruce Fox received a spinal cord injury after an all-terrain vehicle accident, he found himself paralyzed from the waist down. He was admitted to Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital at the age of 17, shortly after graduating high school, and was introduced to Neuromuscular Rehabilitation Services. In Bruce's case, sensitive detectors were placed on his leg muscles to observe signals transmitted from the brain, via the spinal cord, directly to the muscle. These sensors, connected to special computer equipment, relayed these nerve signals from the brain to a video screen. This let Bruce and his therapists actually view the communication process between the brain and nervous system, and the affected muscles.