Article

Electromechanically assisted gait training is a promising task-oriented approach
for gait restoration, especially for people with subacute stroke. However, few
guidelines are available for selecting the parameter values of the
electromechanical Gait Trainer (GT) (Reha-Stim; Berlin, Germany) and none is
tailored to a patient's motor capacity. We assessed 342 GT sessions performed by
20 people with stroke who were stratified by Functional Ambulatory Category. In
the first GT session of all patients, the body-weight support (BWS) required was
higher than that reported in the literature. In further sessions, we noted a slow
reduction of BWS and a fast increment of walking speed for the most-affected
patients. Inverse trends were observed for the less-affected patients. In all the
patients, the heart rate increment was about 20 beats per minute, even for
sessions in which the number of strides performed was up to 500. In addition, the
effective BWS measured during GT sessions was different from that initially
selected by the physiotherapist. This difference depended mainly on the position
of the GT platforms during selection. Finally, harness acceleration in the
anteroposterior direction proved to be higher in patients with stroke than in
nondisabled subjects. Our findings are an initial step toward scientifically
selecting parameters in electromechanically assisted gait training.

Langue : ANGLAIS