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Beyond Biofeedback – Drs Elmer and Alyce Green

A case reported in some detail [Brudny, Korein, et al. (1974) ] is that of a twenty-eight-year-old electrician with a spinal-cord injury that resulted in paraplegia and marked weakness in both arms. For three years he had received conventional therapy but had remained a total-care patient. Brudny initiated sensory feedback therapy, he noted, ". . . .with two specific goals: relaxation of the right spastic biceps and proration of the forearm for use of a wrist-driven splint. Within two weeks the patient achieved both goals, step by step. The same progress took place concurrently in the left arm without sensory feedback therapy." Two years later the patient still retained these functions and could feed and groom himself, type, and drive an electric wheelchair. The researchers comment: "New rehabilitation techniques could influence the quality of life of a severely disabled stroke victim, paraplegic, and cerebral palsied child. The nature of care will also improve when greater awareness of available rehabilitation potential becomes known to the government and the public."