Article

The body-weight-support treadmill (BWST) is commonly used for gait
rehabilitation, but other forms of BWST are in development, such as visual-deprivation BWST (VDBWST). In this study, we compare the effect of VDBWST
training and conventional BWST training on spatiotemporal gait parameters for
three individuals who had hemiparetic strokes. We used a single-subject
experimental design, alternating multiple baselines across the individuals. We recruited three individuals with hemiparesis from stroke; two on the left side
and one on the right. For the main outcome measures we assessed spatiotemporal
gait parameters using GAITRite, including: gait velocity ; cadence; step time of
the affected side (STA) ; step time of the non-affected side (STN); step length of
the affected side (SLA) ; step length of the non-affected side (SLN); step-time
asymmetry (ST-asymmetry) ; and step-length asymmetry
(SL-asymmetry). Gait
velocity, cadence, SLA, and SLN increased from baseline after both interventions,
but STA, ST-asymmetry, and SL-asymmetry decreased from the baseline after the
interventions. The VDBWST was significantly more effective than the BWST for
increasing gait velocity and cadence and for decreasing
ST-asymmetry. VDBWST is
more effective than BWST for improving gait performance during the rehabilitation
for ground walking.

Langue : ANGLAIS