Research Areas: Veterinary SciencesIn human medicine there was no evidence registered of a significant difference in
recovery between body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) and conventional
over-ground (COGI). There isn’t any similar study in veterinary medicine. Thus, this
study aimed to compare the locomotor recovery obtained in incomplete SCI (T11–L3
Hansen type I) post-surgical dogs following BWSTT or COGI protocols, describing their
evolution during 7 weeks in regard to OFS classifications. At admission, dogs were blindly
randomized in two groups but all were subjected to the same protocol (underwater
treadmill training) for the first 2 weeks. After, they were divided in the BWSTT group
(n = 10) and the COGI group (n = 10) for the next 2 weeks, where they performed
different training. In both groups locomotor training was accompanied by functional
electrical stimulation (FES) protocols. Results reported statistically significant differences
between all OFS evaluations time-points (p < 0.001) and between the two groups (p
< 0.001). In particular with focus on T1 to T3 a two-way repeated measures ANOVA
was performed and similar results were obtained (p = 0.007). Functional recovery was
achieved in 90% (17/19) of all dogs and 100% recovered bladder function. The BWSTT
group showed 100% (10/10) recovery within a mean time of 4.6 weeks, while the COGI
group had 78% (7/9) within 6.1 weeks. Therefore, BWSTT leads to a faster recovery with
a better outcome in general.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
