Cardiac rehabilitation for older patients with cardiovascular pathology using robotic systems – A survey

Abstract

In the last decades, we have witnessed a drastic increase in the proportion of elders in the western countries, and more than a third of worldwide population dies because of cardiovascular diseases. The elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases, but not only, are frail and need constant assistance, and so the healthcare system will slowly become incapable of properly address all the patients' medical problems and rehabilitation issues, while aiming towards a continuous increase of the life quality. The rehabilitation robotic systems have the potential to stimulate and support the re-learning of the functional motor pattern of over-ground walking in an optimal manner while increasing patient's motivation, which constitutes a crucial element in the subject's cardiac recovery. Thus, the present article aims at reviewing the robotic systems available for cardiac rehabilitation in elders with cardiac pathology.