Robotic rehabilitation of the paralyzed upper limb for a stroke patient using the single-joint hybrid assistive limb: a case study assessed by accelerometer on the wrist.

This was a single-case study, so it cannot show what happens in other patients. Conventional physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy continued throughout all phases, so the effect of HAL-SJ alone cannot be separated. The standard upper-limb tests did not show changes large enough to be considered clinically important. The paralyzed arm's accelerometer counts did not differ between the pre-intervention and device phases; the higher value appeared only in the post-intervention phase. The post-intervention accelerometer analysis used 9 days, compared with 14 days in the pre-intervention and device phases.

The study was supported in part by grants from Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI. All authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that HAL-SJ caused improved arm use in stroke. This was a single patient, and conventional physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy continued throughout, so the device cannot be separated from usual care. The standard upper-limb tests also did not show clinically important change.