Functional electrical stimulation as an orthotic means for the rehabilitation of paraplegic patients.

In rehabilitating paraplegic patients the restoration of locomotion is often planned to enable the disabled person to use the wheelchair as little as possible or eventually even to abandon it. This objective is more easily obtained in those with incomplete spinal lesions. Applied with the view of restoring locomotion are various types of orthoses, but in the present paper the authors deal with functional electrical stimulation (hereinafter FES) as a means of restoring locomotion, demonstrating the advantages of FES over the use of classical orthoses. The paper offers an outline of the methodology of FES in spinal neural lesions, discusses the criteria of patient selection, giving indications and contraindications. The authors conclude by stating their belief that this treatment represents a new way of rehabilitating spinal paralysed patients which will sooner or later become part of the routine rehabilitation of paraplegic patients.