Abstract
Background: There is insufficient evidence to establish the optimal treatment protocol for robot-assisted gait training. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effects of robot-assisted gait and independent over-ground gait on foot pressure and to determine an effective training protocol for improvement of gait pattern in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury due to industrial accidents. Methods: Four patients with incomplete spinal cord injury due to an industrial accident who had gait disturbance underwent measurement of peak foot pressure and stance phase duration using a foot pressure analysis system with robot-assisted gait and independent over-ground gait. Results: The robot-assisted gait condition has lower peak foot pressure and shorter stance phase duration than the independent over-ground gait. Conclusions: In this study, robot-assisted gait was found to limit gait pattern improvement in patients with gait disturbance caused by incomplete spinal cord injury due to industrial accidents. Therefore, future research will be conducted to determine the optimal protocol for robot-assisted gait training for gait pattern improvement.
Highlights
Almost no research has been conducted to determine the differences in gait between the robot-assisted gait (RAG) condition, which moves by active assist under the help of a robot, and the active independent over-ground gait (IOGG) condition
This study aimed to analyze the effects of the RAG and IOGG on foot pressure and to determine an effective training protocol for improvement of gait pattern in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury due to industrial accidents
The results of this study showed that the RAG had lower peak foot pressure and shorter stance phase duration compared to the IOGG
Summary
Patients with gait disturbance require excessive physical effort of three or more skilled physiotherapists to repeatedly perform safe gait training by imitating normal gait patterns. It is almost impossible for patients with severe muscle weakness or involuntary motions to perform gait training even with the help of therapists [1,2,3,4]. Activity-dependent neural plasticity observed in animal research has been applied as a basic treatment concept for BWSTT in patients with early spinal cord injury [1,2,3,4] This gait training method has been applied in patients with other types of nerve injury, such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease [1,2,3,4,5]. The RAG device is designed to induce the movements of patient’s lower limbs according to pre-programmed normal
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