Outcomes of Customized and Prefabricated Thoraco-Lumbo- Sacral Orthoses on the Psychosocial Impacts in Spinal Cord Injury: A Comparative Study

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) leaves an impact on the patient’s psychological and social well-being and overall quality of life. Various studies on the biomechanical comparison of different design of Thoraco-Lumbo-Sacral Orthosis (TLSO) in SCI patients have been done in the past, but no study has been done on the psychosocial impacts of the customized and prefabricated designs of TLSOs as a parameter of Quality of Life (QoL) in such patients. The psychosocial impacts of customized and prefabricated TLSO in spinal cord injuries patients helps to identify the reasons for acceptance or rejection of TLSO and thus gives an insight for a more rational TLSO prescription. This study is aimed at exploring if a custom-made TLSO provides better psychosocial impacts on SCI patients as a measure of QoL than a prefabricated TLSO. This cross-sectional observational study done on 30 SCI patients selected through a convenient sampling method using either a customized or prefabricated TLSO (15 in each group) and were given a self-reporting questionnaire to compare the measures of Quality of Life on the 3 sub-scales of PIADS (Psychosocial Impacts of Assistive Devices Scale)- Competence, Self-esteem and Adaptability. On comparing the data of customized and prefabricated TLSO users, we concluded as per our established hypothesis that the average PIAD score for customized TLSO on all the three subscales of competence, adaptability and self-esteem which are the measures for QoL is higher than the prefabricated TLSO irrespective to age and gender. As the customized TLSO provides better fit, comfort and compliance in comparison to the prefabricated design it was concluded that the psychosocial impacts as a measure of QoL in spinal cord injury patients is better in customized TLSO than the prefabricated one.