Spasticity and Contractures at the ankle after head injury
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Spasticity and Contracture at the ankle following traumatic brain injury: an investigation into their association and optimal intervention/s to prevent occurrence of contractures.
IRAS ID
90104
Contact name
Kingsley S R Dhinakar
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Staffordshire University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NHE-02CA01-0013, Indemnity Insurance policy no from University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 9 days
Research summary
The incidence of deformity of the ankle is common in moderate to severe acquired brain injury.There is agreement in the literature that lack of early intervention to maintain muscle length in the ankle will progress to a fixed deformity.Therefore, an investigation into the incidence and time course of contracture development at the ankle in the head injury population will be valuable to plan appropriate early treatments as often these patients present with spasticity, weakness and are immobilized in the acute phase after injury, which are all factors that could lead to contracture formation. Typically, in the United Kingdom specialist care to these patients is not available immediately. Therefore, planning early intervention in an evidence-based manner is critically important to preserve muscle properties to help them make most of specialist rehabilitation facilities at a later stage.
The principal aim of the proposed project is to investigate if an association between spasticity and contracture exists, and the time course of development of ankle contractures in patients with head injury. The association of spasticity and contractures will be investigated by examining the degree of spasticity and the existence of contractures by subgrouping patients as with and without spasticity and looking at changes in the muscle length and structure/shape. When the patients are followed up to understand the time course of changes , if they receive focal treatment/intervention to manage ankle spasticity( particularly botulinum type A) as part of routine care , then that group of patients will be followed up for 12 weeks post treatment. Retrospective analysis of patient notes will be done to see if any notes indicate increase muscle activity and subsequently at what point did they receive treatment.
Currently to the best of our knowledge early intervention for ankle spasticity/ muscle overactivity is not carried out.REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0592
Date of REC Opinion
1 May 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion