Adaptive hybrid robotic system for rehabilitation of reaching movement after a brain injury: a usability study.
F Resquín, J Gonzalez-Vargas, J Ibáñez and 7 others
PMID 29025427WHAT IT FOUND
Tracking performance improved during assisted reaching sessions with a hybrid exoskeleton and electrical stimulation in brain injury patients, and it was higher with stimulation than without.
Satisfaction was high. This supports usability, not functional recovery.
Key findings
01In healthy participants, shoulder and elbow tracking errors were lower in trials four, eight and twelve than in trial one.
02In brain injury patients, reaching performance was higher with electrical stimulation than without it in both sessions.
03The patients who completed the sessions gave very high satisfaction scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was a usability and technical viability experiment, not a clinical trial of rehabilitation benefit. The brain injury results came from a very small number of patients, and one recruited patient was excluded from the experimental sessions. Patients were followed for only two experimental sessions, so the results cannot show lasting functional change. The comparison was assisted versus unassisted reaching within the same sessions, not a comparison with usual rehabilitation. The shoulder response was more variable than the elbow response, possibly because the system used electrical stimulation rather than active mechanical assistance at the shoulder. One patient could not continue because of discomfort with electrical stimulation, so sensory intolerance may limit use. The healthy-participant experiment asked participants to let the stimulation move the arm, while the patient experiment asked patients to move actively, so the technical results may not transfer directly.
Declared interests
The supplied text states that the funder was Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (ES).
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the improved tracking performance and high satisfaction as proof that this system improves arm function after brain injury. The study tested usability in a very small patient group and did not compare it with usual rehabilitation.