Application of a paraplegic gait orthosis in thoracolumbar spinal cord injury

Paraplegic gait orthosis has been shown to help paraplegic patients stand and walk, although this method cannot be individualized for patients with different spinal cord injuries and functional recovery of the lower extremities. There is, however, a great need to develop individualized paraplegic orthosis to improve overall quality of life for paraplegic patients. In the present study, 36 spinal cord（below T4） injury patients were equally and randomly divided into control and observation groups. The control group received systematic rehabilitation training, including maintenance of joint range of motion, residual muscle strength training, standing training, balance training, and functional electrical stimulation. The observation group received an individualized paraplegic locomotion brace and functional training according to the various spinal cord injury levels and muscle strength based on comprehensive systematic rehabilitation training. After 3 months of rehabilitation training, the observation group achieved therapeutic locomotion in 8 cases, family-based locomotion in 7 cases, and community-based locomotion in 3 cases. However, locomotion was not achieved in any of the control group patients. These findings suggest that individualized paraplegic braces significantly improve activity of daily living and locomotion in patients with thoracolumbar spinal cord injury.

An improvement to the reciprocating gait orthosis for aiding paraplegic patients in walking

As the conventional reciprocating gait orthosis(RGO)has been deemed incapable of facilitating the patients’passive movement with significant gait discrepancies and distortion,in addition to characteristics such as poor stability,and negligible knee joint rehabilitation,a power assisted reciprocating gait orthosis(PARGO)was designed.Drive devices were added to the hip and knee joints of the RGO.Through efficient implementation of structural components,the number of the required motors was reduced,therefore decreasing the weight of the orthosis.The PARGO knee joint’s structural principle was analyzed to characterize the effect of the PARGO’s single-axis knee joint design on wear comfort,thereby providing a basis for the wear of the PARGO.By analyzing the sagittal movement patterns of the hip and knee joints during normal human gait,kinematic analysis was carried out to obtain the input patterns of the PARGO hip and knee joint drive motors,enabling the patients to more accurately reproduce the normal gaits of hip and knee joints during the rehabilitation training with the aid of the PARGO,and the control process of the PARGO was studied.Finally,a prototype of the PARGO was developed,and experimentation was carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the improved orthosis.