Abstract
Objectives:
The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of a new medial linkage reciprocating gait orthosis (MLRGO) that incorporates a reciprocal mechanism and is sensitive to pelvic motion to potentially assist paraplegic patients to walk and provide functional independence.
Case description and methods:
The new orthosis was constructed and tested by a 20-year-old female paraplegic subject with transverse myelitis at T10 level, who was 4 years post injury and had also been an isocentric reciprocating gait orthosis (IRGO) user for 2 years. She received gait training for 12 weeks before undertaking gait analysis, and also completed a questionnaire that was designed to assess the perceived functionality of the new MLRGO when compared with an IRGO.
Results:
The results demonstrated improvements in gait velocity, step length and cadence, and also improvement in functional independence with the new orthosis compared with an IRGO.
Conclusion:
The results demonstrated that this new MLRGO could be used for paraplegic patients who would like an improvement in functional independence and ambulation.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Iran National Science Foundation for financial support (grant number 9040942) for this research.
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Ahmadi Bani, M., Arazpour, M., Farahmand, F. et al. The influence of new reciprocating link medial linkage orthosis on walking and independence in a spinal cord injury patient. Spinal Cord 53 (Suppl 1), S10–S12 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2014.196
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2014.196
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