A new study published in the Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair journal provides new insight about rehabilitating stroke survivors. The study suggests that traditional rehabilitation is usually being stopped before patients have fully recovered from a stroke. It also suggests that WalkAide by Innovative Neurotronics, a device reported by us in May, can provide hidden potential for additional patient recovery. Here is an excerpt from the press release about the research.
Traditional programs discharge patients three months post-stroke, as it is generally accepted that a stroke survivor’s potential for recovery plateaus around the twelve week mark. This leaves little hope for additional improvement after that time.
This recent study examines the potential for improvement when the WalkAide is used for one full year, specifically by patients who experience a form of paralysis known as “foot drop” that significantly hinders the patient’s ability to walk normally. The results are encouraging.
At the traditional three month mark, when rehabilitation is typically stopped, the walking speed of patients wearing the WalkAide increased by 15%. However, with continued usage of the WalkAide system through six months, the patients’ walking speed increased by 32%. Even more encouraging, after twelve months, the patients’ walking speed had increased by nearly 50%. The study also showed the number of steps taken per day by WalkAide users increased significantly over the year. Patients suffering from foot drop due to spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and other pathologies such as multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy were included in the study and also experienced the same positive results…
Cleared for marketing by the FDA in September 2005, the WalkAide system by Bethesda-based Innovative Neurotronics, Inc. combats foot drop by applying low level electrical currents directly to a motor nerve in the leg which instructs the muscle to flex the foot so the patient can walk normally. Contrary to traditional therapies that require the patient to spend hours in hospitals or rehabilitation facilities, the WalkAide is small, portable, and easily operated by the patient. Worn around the leg, just below the knee, the AA battery-operated device is about the size of a deck of cards…
Link…
Flashback: The WalkAide® System
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