Effect of Overground Gait Training with ‘Mobility Assisted Robotic System-MARS’ on Gait Parameters in Patients with Stroke: A Pre-post Study

Abstract

Objective To observe the effect of overground gait training with ‘Mobility Assisted Robotic System-MARS’ on gait parameters in patients with stroke Patients & Methods: This prospective pre-post study was conducted in a tertiary teaching research hospital with 25 stroke patients with age ranging between 18–65 years. Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were divided in 2 groups based on the duration of stroke (≤ 6 months-sub-acute stroke & > 6 months-chronic stroke) and provided overground gait training with MARS robot for 12 sessions over a period of 2–3 weeks. Primary outcome measures were; 10-Meter walk test, 6-minutes’ walk test-6MWT and Timed up & Go-TUG tests. Secondary outcome measures were Functional Ambulation Category-FAC, Modified Rankin Scale-MRS and Scandinavian Stroke Scale-SSS. Results No adverse events were reported. Twelve patients in sub-acute stroke group and 13 patients in chronic stroke group were provided gait training for a period of maximum 1 hour per session. All primary and secondary outcome measures showed significant improvement in gait parameters at the end of the training (p < 0.05) barring 10-Meter walk test in sub-acute stroke group (p = 0.255). Chronic stroke group showed significant minimum clinically important difference-MCID difference in endurance (6MWT) at the end of the training and both groups showed better ‘minimal detectable change-MDC’ in balance (TUG) at the end of the training. Conclusions Overground gait training with MARS Robot is safe and efficacious. Patients showed significant improvement in walking speed, endurance, balance and independence at the end of the training. Clinical Trial Registry : National Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2021/08/035695)