Kadivar Z, Sullivan J L, Eng D P, Pehlivan A U, O'Malley M K, Yozbatiran N, Francisco G E
Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA.
IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2011;2011:5975429. doi: 10.1109/ICORR.2011.5975429.
Regaining upper extremity function is the primary concern of persons with tetraplegia caused by spinal cord injury (SCI). Robotic rehabilitation has been inadequately tested and underutilized in rehabilitation of the upper extremity in the SCI population. Given the acceptance of robotic training in stroke rehabilitation and SCI gait training, coupled with recent evidence that the spinal cord, like the brain, demonstrates plasticity that can be catalyzed by repetitive movement training such as that available with robotic devices, it is probable that robotic upper-extremity training of persons with SCI could be clinically beneficial. The primary goal of this pilot study was to test the feasibility of using a novel robotic device for the upper extremity (RiceWrist) and to evaluate robotic rehabilitation using the RiceWrist in a tetraplegic person with incomplete SCI. A 24-year-old male with incomplete SCI participated in 10 sessions of robot-assisted therapy involving intensive upper limb training. The subject successfully completed all training sessions and showed improvements in movement smoothness, as well as in the hand function. Results from this study provide valuable information for further developments of robotic devices for upper limb rehabilitation in persons with SCI.
恢复上肢功能是脊髓损伤（SCI）导致的四肢瘫痪患者的首要关注点。机器人辅助康复在SCI患者上肢康复中的测试尚不充分，应用也未得到充分利用。鉴于机器人训练在中风康复和SCI步态训练中已被接受，再加上最近有证据表明，脊髓与大脑一样，具有可塑性，可通过重复性运动训练（如机器人设备所提供的训练）来激发，因此对SCI患者进行机器人上肢训练可能具有临床益处。这项初步研究的主要目的是测试使用一种新型上肢机器人设备（RiceWrist）的可行性，并评估在一名不完全性SCI的四肢瘫痪患者中使用RiceWrist进行机器人辅助康复的效果。一名24岁的不完全性SCI男性患者参加了10次机器人辅助治疗，其中包括强化上肢训练。该受试者成功完成了所有训练课程，并在运动流畅性和手部功能方面都有所改善。这项研究的结果为进一步开发用于SCI患者上肢康复的机器人设备提供了有价值的信息。
