Spasticity Management Clinic

Patients with spinal cord injuries can experience increased muscle tone and spasticity, making straightening an arm or leg difficult or experience muscle spasms. Spasticity can affect function in every day living activities and make independence more challenging.

In the Spasticity Management Clinic, a physiatrist, physical and occupational therapists, orthotists and nurses team together to provide a comprehensive evaluation and treatment plan that incorporates advanced medication and treatment options for spasticity. Goals of treatment include decreasing muscle tone of the affected muscles, improving range of motion, improving joint positioning and more.

Treatment options include:

• Physical and occupational therapy to help improve overall abilities
• Orthotics to provide splinting and bracing to help improve positioning and decrease muscle tone
• Oral medications to help reduce spasticity
• Injections of botulinum toxin (Botox), which can control specific muscle spasticity
• Placement of an internal baclofen pump to deliver medicine directly to the spinal cord
• Orthopaedic or neurological surgery when less invasive forms of treatment are unsuccessful