Characterizing the Effects of Adding Virtual and Augmented Reality in Robot-Assisted Training.

Extended reality (XR) technology combines physical reality with computer synthetic virtuality to deliver immersive experience to users. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two subdomains within XR with different immersion levels. Both of these have the potential to be combined with robot-assisted training protocols to maximize postural control improvement.

Reoperative aortic root surgery: single-center long-term outcomes and literature review.

Background And Objective: Reoperative aortic root surgery has become more and more common over the years and is considered high-risk, with significantly worse outcomes compared to first-procedure root surgery. At our institution, this kind of surgery is frequently performed. The aim of the present review is to describe currently available literature on reoperative surgery on the aortic root in terms of patients' population, indications for surgery and outcomes and to present our center's experience on the matter.

Robotic Postural Training With Epidural Stimulation for the Recovery of Upright Postural Control in Individuals With Motor Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A Pilot Study.

Activity-based training and lumbosacral spinal cord epidural stimulation (scES) have the potential to restore standing and walking with self-balance assistance after motor complete spinal cord injury (SCI). However, improvements in upright postural control have not previously been addressed in this population. Here, we implemented a novel robotic postural training with scES, performed with free hands, to restore upright postural control in individuals with chronic, cervical ( = 5) or high-thoracic ( = 1) motor complete SCI, who had previously undergone stand training with scES using a walker or a standing frame for self-balance assistance.

Training Postural Balance Control with Pelvic Force Field at the Boundary of Stability.

This study characterizes the effects of a postural training program on balance and muscle control strategies in a virtual reality (VR) environment. The Robotic Upright Stand Trainer (RobUST), which applies perturbative forces on the trunk and assistive forces on the pelvis, was used to deliver perturbation-based balance training (PBT) in a sample of 10 healthy participants. The VR task consisted of catching, aiming, and throwing a ball at a target.