Ankle dorsiflexion training with a newly developed Hybrid Assistive Limb for a patient with foot drop caused by common peroneal nerve palsy: a case report.
Daisuke Matsuda, Shigeki Kubota, Yohei Akinaga and 3 others
PMID 35527842WHAT IT FOUND
One man with foot drop from nerve damage showed stronger ankle movement and a normal gait after seven sessions with an ankle exoskeleton.
However, he also received standard rehab, so the device's specific benefit cannot be separated from natural recovery or other therapy.
Key findings
01Muscle strength in the right leg improved, with dorsiflexion rising from grade 2- to 4 on manual testing.
02Active ankle range of motion increased, specifically dorsiflexion improving from 0 degrees to 20 degrees.
03The patient's 'cock-walk' gait disappeared, and he was able to climb stairs and run after the sessions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a single case report, so the results cannot be generalised to other patients. The patient received regular rehabilitation before starting the HAL training, and the study did not separate the effects of the HAL from the concurrent conventional therapy. Spontaneous recovery from nerve palsy is possible, and the authors acknowledge the improvements might have occurred without the device. There was no control group or comparison to standard care alone. The follow-up period for functional outcomes was only seven sessions, though MRI changes were noted at one year.
Declared interests
One author is the CEO and stockholder of Cyberdyne Inc., the manufacturer of the HAL robotic suit. The study was proposed by the authors, and the company was not directly involved in the study design, data collection, analysis, or manuscript preparation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the exoskeleton caused the improvement. The patient also received standard rehabilitation, and spontaneous recovery is common in nerve palsy. The contribution of the HAL cannot be separated from these other factors.