Properties of the surface electromyogram following traumatic spinal cord injury: a scoping review

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts spinal and supraspinal pathways, and this process is reflected in changes in surface electromyography (sEMG). sEMG is an informative complement to current clinical testing and can capture the residual motor command in great detail—including in muscles below the level of injury with seemingly absent motor activities. Enhanced sEMG analysis could contribute to a more complete description of the effects of SCI on upper and lower motor neuron function and their interactions, and also assist in understanding the mechanisms of change following neuromodulation or exercise therapy.

• 1
  Early reports were mostly focused on the qualitative analysis of sEMG patterns and evolved to semi-quantitative scores and a more detailed amplitude-based quantification.
• 2
  Recent studies are still constrained to an amplitude-based analysis of the sEMG, and there are opportunities to more broadly characterize the time- and frequency-domain properties of the signal as well as to take fuller advantage of high-density EMG techniques.
• 3
  A broader perspective on the sEMG signal characteristics has the potential to lead to new outcome measures for use in clinical trials, and to benefit the field through the knowledge gained in understanding the relation of these properties with physiology.