Functional electrical stimulation for walking in paraplegia.

Clinical evaluation of a new orthosis, the `Walkabout', for restoration of functional standing and short distance mobility in spinal paralysed individuals

“…11 In contrast to an earlier study reporting that braces prescribed during rehabilitation are frequently later abandoned, particularly in patients with a neurological lesion above T12, 12 several authors have now reported an encouraging trend towards continued long-term usage of orthoses for exercise with patients describing strong feelings of physical and psychological well-being associated with their use. 9,13 Over the last 10 ± 15 years there has been renewed interest internationally in ambulation of paraplegic individuals with the attempted development of more mechanically e cient orthoses, experimentation with electrical stimulation 14 and recently several hybrid systems combining a mechanical orthosis with electrical stimulation. 15,16 Orthotic devices allowing paralysed individuals to stand and ambulate reciprocally include the Hip Guidance Orthosis (HGO), 17 the Louisiana State University-Reciprocating Gait Orthosis (LSU-RGO), 18 the modi®ed Douglas RGO, 16 the Advanced Reciprocating Gait Orthosis (ARGO), 19 the Isocentric RGO 20 and the Walkabout orthosis.…”

Review of hybrid exoskeletons to restore gait following spinal cord injury

“…The FES system developed by Kralj et al in 1983 proposed closed-loop stimulation of the quadriceps muscle group and the peroneal nerves to achieve paraplegic gait [30]. The last two decades have seen the development of several FES systems based on the designs of Kantrowitz and Liberson [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], and the recent advances in FES technology offer the possibility of achieving more complex and efficient stimulation. The control of FES systems has been improved through multichannel stimulators that can be combined with percutaneous and implanted electrodes.…”

Estimating the user population of a simple electrical stimulation system for standing

“…laboratories as a potential method of achieving standing (and sometimes walking) in carefully chosen paraplegic individuals (see Cybulski et al, 1984 for a review, also Kralj et al, 1983;Marsolais and Kobetic, 1987;Kralj et al, 1987). Mobility needs are very important in this popUlation (Heinemann et al, 1987).…”