Reduction of spastic tone increase after functional electrical stimulation in patients with spinal cord injury

It is well known that functional electrical stimulation (fES), which is used to induce cycling limb movements, is able to reduce spastic muscle tone in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). To what extent this reduction of spasticity is different than that seen after passive leg movements is unclear. We therefore measured spastic tone increase in a group of SCI patients suffering from spasticity of the lower limbs. A total of six SCI patients participated in two different experimental sessions. In one of these sessions fES was used to induce muscle-activated cycling leg movements. Depending on the patient's in…