Initial Results of Lower Limb Exoskeleton Therapy with Human Gait Analysis for a Paraplegic Patient

Abstract

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition affecting the young adult population. Complete SCI results in paraplegia, therefore, the patient is forced to use a wheelchair, withal mobility and activity of daily living is severely decreased. Recently, robotic lower limb exoskeletons have been utilized as a rehabilitation tool for SCI patients to improve the efficiency of the therapy, replace wheelchairs, and intended to reduce complications due to immobile lifestyle. According to our knowledge, there is no standardized protocol for exoskeleton therapy, furthermore, there is a need for objective evaluation of the efficiency of the therapy. In this work, our aim is to objectively evaluate the long-term impact of exoskeleton therapy on general health and rehabilitation therapy in a single case trial. The goal is to assess treatment accuracy by evaluating gait and stability parameters with our non-invasive movement analysis system along with general rehabilitation functional tests. Functional tests showed significant improvement after exoskeleton therapy. According to our results, there is a significant improvement in gait parameters, such as velocity and cadence, and a decrease in swing time following the rehabilitation program. The oscillation for stability analysis were decreased significantly in all planes and resulted in reduced wrist joint movement, justifying the stable hand use and improved balance. The markerless gait and stability analysis proves the importance of exoskeleton training in active rehabilitation therapy that resulted in significant improvement in balance and oscillation during the rehabilitation process. Although, the exact training protocol needs further investigation.