Abstract
A prototype ‘telethesis’, a telemanipulator for high level tetraplegie and similarly disabled persons, has been developed in the French Spartacus project. The system has a modular control structure, both in the choice of transducers and in the microprocessor programmes assuring the ergonomic link with the individual user. A special training procedure has been developed and tested both in the laboratory and in the hospital.
Six tetraplegic patients have used the system in the laboratory and seven in hospital. The experience of 6 months of experimentation in the occupational therapy department with the seven patients is reported. The telethesis has been well accepted by four of them, two of whom have used it for prolonged periods of time. One case has not been adapted with great success prior to his departure, and in two others the use of the system has been rejected, largely for psychological reasons.
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Presented at the twenty-first Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Medical Society of Paraplegia, Athens, Greece. October 1982.
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Kwee, H., Tramblay, M., Barbier, R. et al. First experimentation of the Spartacus telethesis in a clinical environment. Spinal Cord 21, 275–286 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1983.47
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1983.47
