Occupational therapy treatment time during inpatient traumatic spinal cord injury rehabilitation: A retrospective study from a tertiary center in Riyadh

Background: Occupational therapy (OT) is a part of the rehabilitation process which facilitates and enables individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) to be as independent as possible in their activities of daily living (ADLs). Little is known about the OT treatment plan and the duration of the selected treatment intervention during SCI rehabilitation. This study aims to describe the duration of OT treatment that patients with SCI Received during their inpatient rehabilitation stay. Materials and Methods: A chart review of patients with SCI who attended inpatient rehabilitation at King Abdulaziz Medical City between 2016 and 2020 was conducted. The documented rehabilitation session, including the treatment duration and the type of therapeutic intervention, were extracted from each patient’s electronic medical file. Results: A total of 50 eligible patients have been included in this analysis. The median age of the study population was 28, and the majority were male patients (82%). The most common reason for the SCI was a motor vehicle accident (94%), in which 56% required ICU admission. The median total time spent over the patient’s stay was 1785 min, approximately 43.7 hr of OT rehabilitation. Conclusion: Differentiation between and within traumatic SCI patient level in the length of stay (LOS). Differentiation in time intensity was explained by patient and injury characteristics. Also, we identified a significant variation in time spent among traumatic SCI for all OT interventions when examining the median of the total number of hours. Specifically, we found that lower body dressing training was the most time-consuming ADL.