Collectively handling of patients is among the riskiest jobs\nthat one can find. Everyone knows that lifting a patient is not an easy task as\nit poses a risk to your low back. However, a new study has shown that pushing\npatients in a wheelchair can also lead to spinal injuries. The major concern is\nthat many people do not know when to stop pushing hence they always exceed the\nlimits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A research was conducted by researchers from The Ohio State\nUniversity’s Spine Research Institute. In this research different forces\napplied on the low back while pushing a wheelchair were measured. The results\nshowed that many people have no idea of how much they should safely push the\nwheelchairs to protect their spines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides, the results showed that there is a significant risk\nof experiencing a low back injury which is associated with lifting of patients\nas well as pushing them on wheelchairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A review of the research\nresults<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The research team assessed 62 volunteers whereas 31 of them\nwere men and 31 were women where their average age was around 25 years. These volunteers\nwere pushing against a stimulated wheelchair which was connected to a braking\nsystem that had adjustable resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The resistance was set to start at low level and then it was\nincreased to reach a level where the volunteers said that they could no longer move\nthat stimulated wheelchair. Throughout the test, researchers were evaluating\nthe forces which were applied upon their intervertebral discs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers were able to identify that the volunteers,\npushed 17-18 percent past the set limit they should have quit. The also researchers\nfound out that wheelchair pushing poses a great risk of causing low back\ninjuries especially for relatively low patient weights. Under normal\nconditions, the risk of injury upon the low back will occur when pushing\npatients with weight capacity of 220lb and the risk increases significantly\nwith an increase in weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a rise in obesity, patients are gaining weight and\ngetting heavier thus making it harder to lift and push. Many patients are\nexpected to weigh more than 100 kg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, the researchers identified that turning a wheelchair\nwas dangerous to the spine as compared to pushing it in a straight line.\nTurning requires extreme force and energy from the abdominal so as to stabilize\nthe muscles. Besides, the turning motion is responsible for an additional 40% increase\nin the spinal forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers also expect that the risk upon the low back\nwould increase when exposed to non-ideal conditions which were not tested in\nthat particular study. These include activities like pushing a ramp across a\ncarpet or upstairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How do wheelchair pushing\naffect your spine?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pushing against a heavy load will lead to the compression of\nyour spine. Repetition of the activity will speed up the rate of tear and wear\nupon your intervertebral discs. This will degenerate your discs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What you should know is that the intervertebral discs are\nlocated between each of the spinal vertebrae. These are the biggest structures\nwithin the human body which are not directly supplied by blood. When the disc\nis healthy, it will diffuse nutrients via the endplates located along each disc.\nHowever, if extreme loads are continuously applied upon the low back, they lead\nto the formation of tiny micro-fractures as well as tissue scars upon the\nendplates which affect the process of diffusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A drop in the supply of nutrients to the disc leads its\ndegeneration. When the spinal discs undergo degeneration, they shrink and might\nstart applying pressure upon your spinal nerves causing you to experience back\npain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do these results\nmean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For now, there is little or nothing you can do to so as to\nsafely condition yourself while pushing a wheelchair. However, using your body weight\nby positioning your body in a way that your lean forward while pushing a\nwheelchair might help in reducing the loads upon your low back. But you have to\nkeep in mind that, leaning forward increases your risk to slip and fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Researchers recommend that, wheelchair designers should put\nmuch emphasis on the wheelchair design enhancing the pushing and turning\nwheelchair mechanics. For example, Dr. Marras who is the director of Ohio State\nUniversity’s Spine Research Institute recommends a wheelchair design with a\nmotor that would propel the wheelchair when the required pushing forces start\nto exceed the limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to that, he recommends a sight improve in handles\nby widening them. This will help in reducing the torques needed in turning\npatients sitting in wheelchairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, there is a need for a technology that will help in reducing injuries especially when it comes to lifting the patients. This can include a floor-based or a ceiling based mechanical lift that will reduce the task of the caregiver. This will also reduce the caregiver’s risk of being exposed repetitive use injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n click here to rent a small or folding wheelchair near you<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Collectively handling of patients is among the riskiest jobs that one can find. Everyone knows that lifting a patient is not an easy task as it poses a risk to your low back. However, a new study has shown that pushing patients in a wheelchair can also lead to spinal injuries. The major concern is… Continue reading How can Wheelchair Propulsion Lead To Back Pain?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/madisonmedicalrental.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}