Biomedical and Systems Engineering Department, Higher Institute of Engineering, El-Shorouk Academy, Cairo, Egypt.
Biomedical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
J Healthc Eng. 2022 Oct 27;2022:6887839. doi: 10.1155/2022/6887839. eCollection 2022.
Rehabilitation assistive devices for head/neck pain treatment cannot allow dynamic changes in position and orientation of the head/neck. Moreover, such devices can neither be used simultaneously nor can they assess the patients' head/neck conditions. This paper aims at designing and implementing a novel dynamic head/neck brace that provides static and dynamic support and/or traction at symmetric and asymmetric positions. This device also provides assessments of the head/neck stiffness for the purpose of fulfilling diagnoses of the head/neck disorders. The device was used and evaluated for its range of motion and its symmetric traction capability using two control modalities. In addition, it was also evaluated in determining the stiffness of the head/neck throughout a simulating mechanical model involved in a set of springs. The device could apply right/left lateral bending to the head/neck ranged -6.97 ± 0.01° to 7.02 ± 0.01° with accuracies of 99.89% and 99.48%, and flexion/extension ranged -8.10 ± 0.02° to 8.12 ± 0.01° with accuracies of 99.57% and 99.42%, respectively, throughout a traction phase of 20 mm. The practical measurements through the symmetric traction tests showed some deviations as compared to that being calculated. Such deviations were greater in flexion/extension rather than the right/left lateral bending. The mean of the obtained error was less than 0.34° for all situations of tests. The accuracies of stiffness measurement of the mechanical model were 99.78% and 99.96%, respectively, throughout performing stair and step tests. The paper presented a novel design of a dynamic head/neck brace that provides support and/or traction to any head/neck positions and capable of evaluating the head/neck stiffness during cervical traction.
用于治疗头/颈部疼痛的康复辅助设备不能允许头/颈部的位置和方向发生动态变化。此外，这些设备既不能同时使用，也不能评估患者的头/颈部状况。本文旨在设计和实现一种新型的动态头/颈支撑，该支撑可在对称和不对称位置提供静态和动态支撑和/或牵引。该设备还提供对头/颈刚度的评估，以满足对头/颈疾病的诊断。该设备使用两种控制模式来评估其运动范围和对称牵引能力。此外，还通过一组弹簧涉及的模拟机械模型来评估头/颈的刚度。该设备可以对头/颈部施加右侧/左侧侧弯，范围为-6.97±0.01°至 7.02±0.01°，精度分别为 99.89%和 99.48%，前屈/后伸范围为-8.10±0.02°至 8.12±0.01°，精度分别为 99.57%和 99.42%，在 20mm 的牵引阶段。通过对称牵引测试进行的实际测量与计算结果相比存在一些偏差。这些偏差在屈伸时比在右侧/左侧侧弯时更大。在所有测试情况下，获得的误差平均值均小于 0.34°。在进行台阶测试时，机械模型的刚度测量精度分别为 99.78%和 99.96%。本文提出了一种新型的动态头/颈支撑的设计，该支撑可对头/颈部的任何位置提供支撑和/或牵引，并能在颈椎牵引过程中评估头/颈部的刚度。
