Clinical research of lower extremity exoskeleton robot In post-stroke hemiplegic patients

Abstract

Background In recent years, the number of people suffering from stroke-induced motor function lost increased considerably. Recovery of motility is essential in improving their quality of life. However, the existing rehabilitation methods cannot fulfill patients’ training requirements. As a new rehabilitation technology, exoskeleton robot provides a new treatment scheme for post-stroke hemiplegic patients. Objective To explore the safety and effectiveness of exoskeleton-assisted gait training for post-stroke hemiplegic patients. Methods A lower extremity hip joint exoskeleton robot was designed by the cooperation team, and 9 post-stroke hemiplegic patients were included for exoskeleton-assisted gait training. The three-dimensional gait parameters, plantar pressure and surface electromyography were used to validate the effectiveness of the exoskeleton robot in post-stroke hemiplegic patients. Results Exoskeleton-assisted ambulation training for post-stroke hemiplegic patients can correct the asymmetry of gait and abnormal phase of gait cycle, increase the toe-ground clearance and the angle of hip joint, reduce the pressure of non-paretic plantar and the impulse of bilateral feet, which help balance the plantar pressure distribution. It can also improve the integral electromyography value of specific muscle, which means that corresponding muscles are stimulated to generate activities. Conclusions The exoskeleton robot designed by our team can correct the hemiplegic gait and foot drop phenomenon of post-stroke patients, protecting them from damage caused by long-term abnormal gait, which contributes to the recovery of lower extremity motor function in hemiplegic patients. The results also provide important information for the design of lower extremity exoskeleton robot. In the future, we should further explore the rehabilitation function of exoskeleton robot in post-stroke hemiplegic patients, as well as the ambulation and rehabilitation function in other lower extremity motor dysfunction patients.

Dynamic analysis and design of a multipurpose lower limb exoskeleton for rehabilitation

“…The shape and trend of curves in Figures 4 and 5 are nearly the same with the curves drawn by the clinical gait analysis (CGA) gait data of the International Society of Biomechanics, 29 the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 30 and the research results of other scholars. 31 The maximum and minimum values of the curves are on the same order of magnitude.…”