The Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center offers the most effective treatments available to help those with total or partial loss of sensation, movement or function due to spinal cord injury or disease.
Our rehabilitation program can help you regain lost skills or learn alternative behaviors to compensate for skills that cannot be recovered. The goal for each patient is to achieve the highest possible level of independence and quality of life.
Our Patients
Patients come to Ohio State for rehabilitative care with a spinal cord injury that is classified as:
- Complete injury – No function below the level of injury, including no sensation or movement (paralysis), with both sides of the body affected
- Incomplete injury – Some movement or sensation below the injury, which may include more function on one side of the body than the other
We provide specialized rehabilitative care to our patients with Spinal cord injuries due to many different causes including:
- Birth injuries
- Falls
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Sports or recreation injuries
- Violent acts
- Strokes or bleeds of the spinal cord
- Diseases, such a cancer, arthritis, inflammation or infection
Other injuries to the spinal cord
Our patients with spinal cord injuries we care for can have:
- Tetraplegia (total or partial loss of movement of both arms/hands and legs/feet
- Paraplegia (total or partial loss of movement of both legs/feet
- Total or partial loss of feeling in the arms/hands and/or legs/feet
- Difficulty with bladder and bowel function
- Problems with temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate control
- Muscle spasms or spasticity
- Pain
- Breathing and swallowing difficulties
- Cognitive difficulties (traumatic or other brain injury)
Our patients with spinal cord injuries may have other medical conditions that we provide comprehensive care for including:
- Diabetes, hypertension, heart, lung, or liver disease
- Kidney disease sometimes requiring dialysis
- Complex organ transplants
- Strokes and other diseases of the brain and spinal cord
- Cancer
Why choose The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center?
Ohio State’s comprehensive rehabilitative care programs help people with spinal cord injuries optimize their abilities and achieve a higher level of independence. Here’s why people choose Ohio State for care after a spinal cord injury:
Personalized Care: You will receive a personal evaluation that helps create an individualized care plan to meet your needs and lead you toward your health goals. We will help you learn the skills and techniques you need to improve your abilities at work, home and social settings.
Best Outcomes: Unlike many other programs, our treatment plans address the unique physical, social, psychological, emotional and economic issues that often accompany spinal cord injuries. This comprehensive approach allows patients to return to their communities sooner than most programs, as our inpatient length of stay is shorter than the national average.
Unique Services: Ohio State is home to one of only seven centers that are part of the NeuroRecovery Network. This network uses activity-based therapies, specifically locomotor training. Locomotor training is an innovative treatment that employs the nervous system’s ability to learn, or relearn, motor skills. We are the only central Ohio program that provides the full spectrum of care for spinal cord injury patients. From surgery to inpatient rehabilitation to outpatient rehabilitation, we are here for you.
Accredited Programs: We are proud that our Inpatient Rehabilitation Programs at Dodd Hall and our Outpatient Medical Rehabilitation Programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). CARF recognizes our programs as meeting the highest standards in quality, safety and outcome measures, which provide risk-reduction and accountability in our patient care.
Nation’s Best: Ohio State’s rehabilitation program consistently ranks among the best in the nation. As an academic medical center, Ohio State offers comprehensive medical expertise, the most advanced technologies and treatment techniques, and innovative care backed by research knowledge.
Our Services
This program offers rehabilitation services to help in each phase of your rehabilitation — from services offered in the hospital (inpatient services) to those offered after returning home (outpatient services). These services offer continued care to help achieve your highest level of recovery.
We have an expert team of health care professionals who work together to offer a wide range of rehabilitative services. This starts at the time of injury and continues through rehabilitation and long-term care.
Our services are for all levels of need:
-
Acute Rehabilitation, short-term medical treatment, usually in a hospital
- Inpatient Rehabilitation, intensive therapies in the hospital
- Outpatient Rehabilitation, follow-up therapy services after you have returned home from the hospital or another rehabilitation facility
