Immediate effects of hybrid assistive limb gait training on lower limb function in a chronic myelopathy patient with postoperative late neurological deterioration.

Journal: BMC research notes
Published Date:

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) has recently been used to treat movement disorders. Although studies have shown its effectiveness for chronic myelopathy, the immediate effects of HAL gait training on lower limb function have not been clarified. We conducted HAL gait training and examined its immediate effects on a 69-year-old man with re-deterioration of myelopathy in the chronic phase after surgery for compression myelopathy. The HAL intervention was performed every 4 weeks for 10 total sessions. Immediately before and after each session, we analyzed the patient's walking ability using the 10-m walk test. In the 4th HAL session, the gastrocnemius muscle activity was measured bilaterally using a synchronized motion capture-electromyogram system.

Authors

  • Shigeki Kubota
    a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine , University of Tsukuba , Tsukuba City , Japan.
  • Hideki Kadone
    c Center for Innovating Medicine and Engineering , University of Tsukuba , Tsukuba City , Japan.
  • Yukiyo Shimizu
    a Department of Rehabilitation Medicine , University of Tsukuba Hospital , Tsukuba, Ibaraki , Japan.
  • Masao Koda
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1, Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
  • Hiroshi Takahashi
    Department of Respiratory Medicine, Saka General Hospital, Sendai, Japan.
  • Kousei Miura
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
  • Fumihiko Eto
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
  • Takeo Furuya
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan.
  • Yoshiyuki Sankai
  • Masashi Yamazaki
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Tsukuba (Tsukuba Pediatric Orthopaedic Group), Tsukuba, Japan.