Effects of a wearable exoskeleton stride management assist system (SMA®) on spatiotemporal gait characteristics in individuals after stroke: a randomized controlled trial

This would barely help me at all. It does nothing for the lower legs which is where my spasticity forces my left foot to angle out to the left.
The Honda site with pictures and video.
http://corporate.honda.com/innovation/walk-assist/
The research here:
http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/12/1/69

Carolyn Buesing^1†, Gabriela Fisch^1†, Megan O’Donnell^1†, Ida Shahidi^1†, Lauren Thomas^1†, Chaithanya K. Mummidisetty^2†, Kenton J. Williams³, Hideaki Takahashi³, William Zev Rymer⁴ and Arun Jayaraman^2*

• * Corresponding author: Arun Jayaraman a-jayaraman@northwestern.edu
• † Equal contributors

Author Affiliations

¹ Northwestern University Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, 645 N. Michigan Ave, Suite 1100, Chicago 60611, IL, USA
² Max Nader Lab for Rehabilitation Technologies and Outcomes Research, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 E. Superior St, Chicago 60611, IL, USA
³ Honda R&D Americas, Inc, 21001 State Route 739, Raymond 43067, OH, USA
⁴ Director, Research Planning, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, 345 E. Superior St, Chicago 60611, IL, USA

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Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 2015, 12:69  doi:10.1186/s12984-015-0062-0

Carolyn Buesing, Gabriela Fisch, Megan O'Donnell, Ida Shahidi, Lauren Thomas, and Chaithanya K. Mummidisetty contributed equally to this work.
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/12/1/69

Received:	31 March 2015
Accepted:	11 August 2015
Published:	20 August 2015

© 2015 Buesing et al.

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Abstract

Background

Robots offer an alternative, potentially advantageous method of providing repetitive, high-dosage, and high-intensity training to address the gait impairments caused by stroke. In this study, we compared the effects of the Stride Management Assist (SMA®) System, a new wearable robotic device developed by Honda R&D Corporation, Japan, with functional task specific training (FTST) on spatiotemporal gait parameters in stroke survivors.

Methods

A single blinded randomized control trial was performed to assess the effect of FTST and task-specific walking training with the SMA® device on spatiotemporal gait parameters. Participants (n = 50) were randomly assigned to FTST or SMA. Subjects in both groups received training 3 times per week for 6–8 weeks for a maximum of 18 training sessions. The GAITRite® system was used to collect data on subjects’ spatiotemporal gait characteristics before training (baseline), at mid-training, post-training, and at a 3-month follow-up.

Results

After training, significant improvements in gait parameters were observed in both training groups compared to baseline, including an increase in velocity and cadence, a decrease in swing time on the impaired side, a decrease in double support time, an increase in stride length on impaired and non-impaired sides, and an increase in step length on impaired and non-impaired sides. No significant differences were observed between training groups; except for SMA group, step length on the impaired side increased significantly during self-selected walking speed trials and spatial asymmetry decreased significantly during fast-velocity walking trials.

Conclusions

SMA and FTST interventions provided similar, significant improvements in spatiotemporal gait parameters; however, the SMA group showed additional improvements across more parameters at various time points. These results indicate that the SMA® device could be a useful therapeutic tool to improve spatiotemporal parameters and contribute to improved functional mobility in stroke survivors. Further research is needed to determine the feasibility of using this device in a home setting vs a clinic setting, and whether such home use provides continued benefits.

Trial registration

This study is registered under the title “Development of walk assist device to improve community ambulation” and can be located in clinicaltrials.gov with the study identifier: NCT01994395.