Effects of robot-assisted gait training on the balance and gait of chronic
stroke patients: focus on dependent ambulators |
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| Authors: | Duk Youn Cho Si-Woon Park Min Jin Lee Dae Sung Park Eun Joo Kim |
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| Affiliation: | 1) Korea National Rehabilitation Center Research Institute, National Rehabilitation Center, Republic of Korea;2) Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Catholic Kwandong University International St Mary’s Hospital, Republic of Korea;3) Department of Physical Therapy, Konyang University, Republic of Korea;4) Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, National Rehabilitation Hospital, National Rehabilitation Center, Republic of Korea |
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| Abstract: | [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to confirm the effect of robot-assisted gaittraining on the balance and gait ability of stroke patients who were dependent ambulators.[Subjects and Methods] Twenty stroke patients participated in this study. The participantswere allocated to either group 1, which received robot-assisted gait training for 4 weeksfollowed by conventional physical therapy for 4 weeks, or group 2, which received the sametreatments in the reverse order. Robot-assisted gait training was conducted for 30 min, 3times a week for 4 weeks. The Berg Balance Scale, Modified Functional Reach Test,Functional Ambulation Category, Modified Ashworth Scale, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, MotricityIndex, and Modified Barthel Index were assessed before and after treatment. To confirm thecharacteristics of patients who showed a significant increase in Berg Balance Scale afterrobot-assisted gait training as compared with physical therapy, subgroup analysis wasconducted. [Results] Only lateral reaching and the Functional Ambulation Category weresignificantly increased following robot-assisted gait training. Subscale analysesidentified 3 patient subgroups that responded well to robot-assisted gait training: asubgroup with hemiplegia, a subgroup in which the guidance force needed to be decreased toneeded to be decreased to ≤45%, and a subgroup in which weight bearing was decreased to≤21%. [Conclusion] The present study showed that robot-assisted gait training is not onlyeffective in improving balance and gait performance but also improves trunk balance andmotor skills required by high-severity stroke patients to perform activities daily living.Moreover, subscale analyses identified subgroups that responded well to robot-assistedgait training.Key words: Stroke, Robotics, Gait |
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