Objective
To evaluate the effect of different kind of abdominal corsets on pulmonary function and energy consumption in the patients with cervical spinal cord injury.

Method
Five subjects with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury were enrolled. A quantitative evaluation of vital capacity, tidal volume, and oxygen consumption was done using K4b² (COSMED, Italy) under following six conditions; 1) supine position without abdominal corset, 2) sitting position without abdominal corset, 3) supine position with non-elastic abdominal corset, 4) sitting position with non-elastic abdominal corset, 5) supine position with elastic abdominal corset, 6) sitting position with elastic abdominal corset. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied for statistical assessment of group difference.

Results
Vital capacity and tidal volume in the condition with elastic abdominal corset were significantly increased than those of the condition without corset (p＜0.05) or of the condition with non-elastic corset (p＜0.01) in both sitting and supine position. Vital capacity and tidal volume in the condition with non-elastic abdominal corset were significantly decreased than those of the condition without corset (p＜0.05) in both sitting and supine position. Oxygen consumption was least in the condition with elastic abdominal corset (p＜0.05).

Conclusion
These results demonstrated that the elastic abdominal corset is beneficial in improving the efficiency of breathing for the patients with cervical spinal cord injury. However, non-elastic abdominal corset is harmful to these patients.