Advances in the clinical application of noninvasive physical therapy for treating spinal cord injury: A narrative review

Abstract

Background:In recent years, the use of noninvasive physical therapy for spinal cord injury (SCI) has attracted widespread attention owing to its minimal side effects, cost-effectiveness, and high patient compliance.

Objective:This study aimed to review the efficacy and safety of various noninvasive physical therapies for the management of SCI.

Study design:Narrative review.

Methods:We conducted a literature review using PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for relevant literature published before November 2024. The findings were organized and presented with a focus on noninvasive physical therapy for the treatment of human SCI.

Results:We describe the advances in the clinical application of noninvasive physical therapy for SCI. Several studies have achieved positive results, helping individuals with SCI achieve functional recovery of the upper limbs, lower limbs, and bladder control, relieve neuropathic pain and sensory deficits and improve their quality of life. Comprehensive treatment is often employed after SCI, and the effects of exercise combined with noninvasive physical therapy or a combination of multiple physical therapies have potential.

Conclusions:Noninvasive physical therapies, such as electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, sound, light, and vibration, have beneficial therapeutic effects and are safe for the clinical treatment of SCI; however, they may need to be combined with other treatments.

Keywords

Spinal cord injury / Noninvasive therapy / Electrical stimulation / Magnetic stimulation / Rehabilitation

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Funding information

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 82102644) to H.Z., Shanghai Sailing Program (21YF1423900) to H.Z., Shanghai Health Commission Key Supporting Discipline (2023ZDFC0303) to B.C., and Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation High-level Talent Project (824RC558).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Zeng Hong: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Methodology, Conceptualization. Cheng Li: Writing - original draft, Investigation, Data curation, Conceptualization. Wang Yijia: Software, Data curation, Validation.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this study.

Acknowledgments

Not applicable.

Data availability

Not applicable.

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