NCT04292717

Deficit-specific Training in Spinal Disorders

Completed NA Last updated 2 December 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Gait training in Spinal Cord Injuries in 63 participants. Completed in 19 November 2025.

Timeline

1 January 2021

Primary endpoint
19 November 2025

19 November 2025

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	University of Zurich
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	63
Start date	1 January 2021
Primary completion	19 November 2025
Estimated completion	19 November 2025
Sites	1 location across Switzerland

Drugs / interventions tested

• Gait training

Conditions studied

• Spinal Cord Injuries — all drugs for Spinal Cord Injuries →
• Multiple Sclerosis — all drugs for Multiple Sclerosis →
• Gait Disorders, Neurologic — all drugs for Gait Disorders, Neurologic →
• Training — all drugs for Training →

Sponsor

University of Zurich

Who can join

Adults 18 to 80, any sex, with Spinal Cord Injuries or Multiple Sclerosis. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Impairments of walking function after spinal cord lesion due to, for example, inflammation, ischemia or trauma are exceptionally diverse. Depending on the size, location and completeness of the spinal cord lesion, gait dysfunction is often multifactorial, arising from weakness of leg muscles, sensory impairments or spasticity. Locomotor function in humans with spinal cord damage can be improved through training. However, there are no evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of gait dysfunctions and no excepted standards of gait training in this large and heterogeneous group of patients. A lack of evidence-based guidance and standardisation prevents the development of optimal training programs for patients with spinal cord damage and rather broad and subjective clinical judgement is applied to determine patient care. Objective and quantitative techniques like three-dimensional (3D) full-body movement analysis capable of identifying the most relevant determinants of gait dysfunction at the single-patient-level are not yet implemented as diagnostic tool to guide physical therapy in this heterogeneous group of patients. The objective of this project is to further advance current clinical locomotor training strategies by applying a deficit-oriented gait training approach based on subject-specific, objective gait profiles gleaned from 3D gait analysis in chronic, mildly to moderately gait-impaired individuals with spinal cord damage due to inflammation (in multiple sclerosis, MS) or with traumatic or ischemic spinal cord injury (SCI; motor incomplete). Within a parallel-group clinical trial, gait impaired subjects will be characterized by detailed kinematic 3D gait analysis and either trained according to their individual deficits or treated with non-specific, standard walking therapy for six weeks. It is hypothesized that individually adapted, deficit-oriented training is superior in improving walking function than purely task-related, ambulatory training in patients with spinal cord damage. This project may pave the way to more efficient training approaches in subjects with spinal cord damage by transferring and implementing modern gait assessment techniques into clinical neurorehabilitation and to move towards individual, patient-tailored locomotor training programs.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.