Effects of unilateral lower limb exoskeleton robot on gait improvement and brain function in patients with chronic stroke: a randomized clinical trial

 Have your competent? doctor contact the corresponding author to see how to get this exoskeleton for your rehab, it should work even better if used immediately. Can your fuckingly incompetent doctor even manage to send an email? My definition of competence in stroke is 100% recovery protocols: NOTHING LESS!

Do you prefer your doctor, hospital and board of director's incompetence NOT KNOWING? OR NOT DOING?

Effects of unilateral lower limb exoskeleton robot on gait improvement and brain function in patients with chronic stroke: a randomized clinical trial

• Manxia Li,
• Shenghan Zhang,
• Juan Wei,
• Zhenyu Liu,
• Zekun Tian,
• Chao Long,
• Yan Jiang,
• Chengbiao Ding,
• Yi Liu &
• Xiaojun Feng 

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to observe the efficacy of unilateral lower limb exoskeleton robot training and its effect on neuroplasticity in hemiplegic patients with stroke by comparing it with conventional treatment.

Methods

Twenty-four patients with chronic stroke were randomly assigned to either the robot group (RG) or the control group (CG). The CG was treated with conventional rehabilitation, and the RG was treated with unilateral lower limb exoskeleton robot-assisted walking training based on conventional rehabilitation. The study’s primary outcome measures included gait analysis and plantar pressure testing before and after treatment. Secondary outcome measures included changes in lower limb Fugl-Meyer (FMA), Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), and Modified Barthel Index (MBI). In addition, we used functional near - infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure neural activity before and after the intervention.

Results

The robot group had significantly greater improvements in walking speed and stride length compared to the control group. The robot group showed greater improvements in FMA scores and reductions in TUG duration compared to the control group. Changes in plantar pressure and oxyhemoglobin (HbO) concentrations were observed only in the robot group.

Conclusion

Both conventional rehabilitation therapy and robot-assisted gait training improve walking function in patients with chronic stroke, but robot-assisted intervention shows more favorable outcomes.

Data availability

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.