Purpose: To learn more about joint movements during motions of the arms (such as waving and reaching) in children who have a spinal cord injury (SCI) by objectively measuring their reachable workspace.

Significance: Thoracic lumbar sacral orthosis (TLSO) and surgery are treatments for scoliosis. How these treatments affect the functional upper extremity reaching patterns of patients is not well understood. For children undergoing bracing treatment, measurements will be obtained with and without the brace. For those undergoing spine fusion, measurements will be obtained prior to their spine fusion and one year post-operatively. Reachable workspace measurements for children with SCI will also be compared to similar measurements for aged-matched able-bodied children (controls).

Methods: Thirty-six children from each of the three Shriners Hospitals for Children sites are being tested: twenty children with SCI and 16 able-bodied children from age 5 to 18 years old. Of the twenty children with SCI, ten SCI patients with TLSO braces are being tested and ten SCI subjects with anticipated spine fusion occurring within six months of the time of evaluation are being tested. For the controls, four children from each of the following 4 age groups: 5-7, 8-11, 12-15, 16-18 have been selected.

In the motion analysis lab, the subjects reaching pattern is being evaluated while the subject is seated on a bench. The reaching pattern data will be collected while the subject reaches for targets on the floor, overhead and every 20-degree radius above and below the measured seated shoulder height between the floor and overhead. As the child moves his/her arms, a video camera and seven motion cameras will capture the child�s movement as she/he reaches out to touch markers on three poles (one on the left, one in the center, and one on the right side of the bench). The volume of the reaching area across all the 20 reaching trials (10 reaches for the right side and 10 reaches for the left side) will be determined using custom software.

Each testing session lasts about two hours and the child will participate in one to three testing sessions. A convenience sample of eight children from the control group (two from each age group), five children from the brace group, and five children from the operative group are retested within two days to one month of their last visit.

Data Analysis: Motion data is collected with a 7-camera motion analysis system and video data is collected simultaneously.