Article

This article describes the development and testing of a new
powered gait orthosis to potentially assist spinal cord injury patients to walk
by producing synchronized hip and knee joint movements. TECHNIQUE: The first
evaluation of the orthosis was performed without users,
and was followed by
evaluation of the orthosis performance using three healthy subjects to test the
structure under weight-bearing conditions. The orthosis was primarily evaluated
to ascertain its ability to generate appropriate hip and knee motion during
walking. The walking experiments replicated the flexion and extension of both the
hip and knee produced by the actuators which had previously been demonstrated
during the initial computer simulations. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that
this new orthosis could be used to assist paraplegic subjects who have adequate
ranges of motion and also with weakness or reduced tone to ambulate, and may also
be suitable for other subjects with impaired lower limb function (e.g. stroke,
poliomyelitis, myelomeningocele and traumatic brain injury provided they do not
have increased tone or movement disorders.

Langue : ANGLAIS