Enhancing Walking Performance With a Bilateral Hip Exoskeleton Assistance in Individuals With Above-Knee Amputation.

Transfemoral amputation is a debilitating condition that leads to long-term mobility restriction and secondary disorders that negatively affect the quality of life of millions of individuals worldwide. Currently available prostheses are not able to restore energetically efficient and functional gait, thus, recently, the alternative strategy to inject energy at the residual hip has been proposed to compensate for the lack of energy of the missing leg. Here, we show that a portable and powered hip exoskeleton assisting both the residual and intact limb induced a reduction of walking energy expenditure in four individuals with above-knee amputation.

Robot-mediated overground gait training for transfemoral amputees with a powered bilateral hip orthosis: a pilot study.

Background: Transfemoral amputation is a serious intervention that alters the locomotion pattern, leading to secondary disorders and reduced quality of life. The outcomes of current gait rehabilitation for TFAs seem to be highly dependent on factors such as the duration and intensity of the treatment and the age or etiology of the patient. Although the use of robotic assistance for prosthetic gait rehabilitation has been limited, robotic technologies have demonstrated positive rehabilitative effects for other mobility disorders and may thus offer a promising solution for the restoration of healthy gait in TFAs.

Increased Symmetry of Lower-Limb Amputees Walking With Concurrent Bilateral Vibrotactile Feedback.

Gait asymmetry in lower-limb amputees can lead to several secondary conditions that can decrease general health and quality of life. Including augmented sensory feedback in rehabilitation programs can effectively mitigate spatiotemporal gait irregularities. Such benefits can be obtained with non-invasive haptic systems representing an advantageous choice for usability in overground training and every-day life.

Reliability of the six-minute walk test in individuals with stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: The six-minute walking test (6MWT) is a simple and widely used measure of functional capacity. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize findings on reliability of 6MWT in subjects who have had a stroke.

Methods: Two independent investigators conducted an extensive search in multidisciplinary electronic databases from inception to August 2019, and selected complete original studies on the reliability of the 6MWT used to assess individuals with stroke.