Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy: Recovery of Function Following Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke

Abstract

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a technology one can use to artificially generate body movements in individuals who have paralyzed muscles due to injury to the central nervous system. More specifically, FES can be used to generate functions such as grasping and walking in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders that do not affect lower motor neurons. This technology was originally used to develop neuroprostheses that were implemented to permanently substitute impaired functions such as bladder voiding, grasping, and walking. In other words, a consumer would use the device each time he/she wanted to generate a desired function. In recent years, FES technology has been used to deliver, therapies to retrain voluntary motor functions such as grasping, reaching and walking. In this application, FES is used as a short-term therapy, the objective of which is restoration of voluntary function and not lifelong dependence on the FES device, hence the name FES therapy or FET. The FET is used as a short-term intervention to help the central nervous system of the consumer to relearn how to execute impaired functions. In this chapter, we introduce recent findings and advances in the field of FET.