Feasibility and effects of patient-cooperative robot-aided gait training applied in a 4-week pilot trial.

 Have your therapist explain this, especially the Borg scale.
http://www.naric.com/research/rehab/record.cfm?search=2&type=all&criteria=J63956&phrase=no&rec=118919
Abstract: Study examined the feasibility of applying four weeks of patient-cooperative robot-aided gait rehabilitation to patients with stroke and incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI). Two individuals with chronic incomplete SCI and two with chronic stroke trained with the Lokomat gait rehabilitation robot which was operated in a new, patient-cooperative mode for a period of four weeks with four training sessions of forty-five minutes per week. At baseline and after two and after four weeks, walking function was assessed with the ten-meter walking test. Additionally, muscle activity of the major leg muscles, heart rate, and the Borg scale were measured under different walking conditions including a non-cooperative position control mode to investigate the short-term effects of patient-cooperative versus non-cooperative robot-aided gait training. Patient-cooperative robot-aided gait training was tolerated well by all subjects and performed without difficulties. The subjects trained more actively and with more physiological muscle activity than in a non-cooperative position-control mode. One subject showed a significant and relevant increase of gait speed after the therapy, the three remaining subjects did not show significant changes. Findings suggest that patient-cooperative robot-aided gait training is feasible in clinical practice. However, the limited number of subjects in this pilot trial did not permit valid conclusions on the effect of patient-cooperative robot-aided gait training on walking function.