Paraplegic Walking
The paraplegic is a person who has a loss of muscular force control due to
a disruption of major neural pathways at some point along the spinal column.
The higher the spinal disruption, the more use of body parts that are lost.
There are several advantages to having paraplegic subjects walk:
1. Possibility of recovery of ability to walk for patients with less severe
injury
2. Elimination of detrimental psychological effects of loss of ambulation
3. Independence of subject from constant supervision
4. Physiological advantages, including muscle growth and increased blood flow
and bone strength
Devices for locomotion of paraplegic subjects have been research since the
early 1950's. Below, are some of the most innovative devices that have been
created.
To look at all the references that I've found, you can see this powerpoint
presentation.
| Hydraulic Exoskeletal Walking Device |
The first powered walking assistive device was developed by Seireg et al in
1978. This device had five degrees of freedom (DOF): two at the hip, one at
the knee and two at the ankle. The hip and knee were powered by a hydraulic
pump placed on the back of the subject. The first design of the exoskeleton
was cam-operated and can be seen in Figure 1 (a). The second version was computer-controlled
and can be seen below in Figure 1(b).
 Figure 1 (a) The cam-operated exoskeleton |
| Lokomat Rehabilitation Device |
The Lokomat Project is a pneumatic actuated robot that copies normal gait patterns for humans. The subject is placed on a treadmill, is supported by a harness and their legs are driven by the Lokomat robotic orthosis. Currently, gait-pattern adaptation experiments are being performed . You can see a movie of the Lokomat with and without a subject (File size: 5.7 MB).
| Weight Bearing Control (WBC) Orthosis |
|
The weight bearing control (WBC) orthosis, seen in Figure
2, consists of: a rigid frame that supports the user's body weight,
a special hip joint device that reciprocally propels each leg forward,
a gas powered foot device for foot/floor clearance, and control system
of the orthosis (Yano et al 1997).
The subject uses special crutches with two buttons each to signal to the WBC orthosis when to begin each step. The sequence of each step is retraction of the sole of the swinging leg, forward swing powered by the subject and extension of the sole for foot contact. |
 Figure 2 The weight bearing control (WBC) orthosis Click to see the gas powered foot device for foot/floor clearance |
| Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) |
| Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) consists of electrically stimulating a muscle using electrodes. If muscles are stimulated in the right order, a walking-like motion can be attained by paraplegic subjects. Current hybrid systems use a combination of electrical stimulation and walkers to allow paraplegic subjects to walk. The latest system was developed by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland FES Center and can be seen in Figure 3. |
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