Functional evaluation of robot end-point assisted gait re-education in chronic stroke survivors

Abstract

Gait re-education is a primary rehabilitation goal after stroke. In this study, we used instrumented gait analysis for evaluating the outcomes of gait training assisted by an endpoint robot in a population of six chronic stroke survivors. The preliminary results, based on spatial-temporal and kinematic analysis, suggest that (a) self-placed walking speed increases, with an improvement of both length and duration of the stride, (b) balance increases during standing and walking, (c) the non-affected side becomes less involved in attempting to correct for the deficiencies of the affected side, thus reducing the importance of compensatory strategies.