Volition-adaptive control for gait training using wearable exoskeleton: preliminary tests with incomplete spinal cord injury individuals.
Vijaykumar Rajasekaran, Eduardo López-Larraz, Fernando Trincado-Alonso and 4 others
PMID 29298691WHAT IT FOUND
In four people with incomplete spinal cord injury, knee movement increased more when a wearable robot adjusted stiffness with their effort and brain signals than when stiffness was fixed.
This was a small feasibility test, not proof of lasting walking gains.
Key findings
01In four participants, movement range differed significantly across three sessions.
02All subjects except P04 showed a significant difference in movement range.
03Knee stiffness adapted within a range of 80±5 Nm/deg during adaptive assistance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Four participants is too few to tell whether the approach helps typical patients or different injury levels. The supplied text does not describe randomisation or blinding, and the sessions had a fixed order: fixed stiffness first, then adaptive stiffness. Two participants could not complete all planned trials in the second adaptive session, so the main fixed-versus-adaptive comparison used only session 1 and session 3. The supplied text describes robot-based outcomes such as joint angles, interaction torques, stiffness, response time, and trial counts, not a clinical walking outcome. All participants had some residual walking ability: they could balance between parallel bars and had upper-limb strength for a walker or crutches, so the study does not address people with more severe impairment. P04 did not show a significant change, and the authors mention high sensibility in both legs.
Declared interests
No conflicts-of-interest statement is present in the supplied text. The publication metadata lists non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this exoskeleton improves walking recovery. The study was a small feasibility test with four participants, robot-measured movement outcomes, and no randomised control group.