Effects of Focal Vibration and Robotic Assistive Therapy on Upper Limb Spasticity in incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Vibration stimulation seems to be an affordable easy-to-use rehabilitation tool. Focal muscle vibration (FV) has potential to reduce spasticity and enhance muscle strength and performance. Combined with robotic assisted movement therapy, the rehabilitation can benefit from improvement of more than o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vojinovic, Tijana Jevtic, Linley, Emma, Zivanovic, Aleksandar, Rui Loureiro, C.V.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric measurements
Exercise Movement Techniques
Humans
Male
Medical treatment
Middle Aged
Motion measurement
Movement
Muscle Spasticity - physiopathology
Muscle Spasticity - rehabilitation
Muscle Strength
Muscle, Skeletal - physiopathology
Muscles
Robots
Spinal Cord Injuries - physiopathology
Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation
Vibration
Vibrations
Wrist
Wrist Joint - physiopathology
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Summary:Vibration stimulation seems to be an affordable easy-to-use rehabilitation tool. Focal muscle vibration (FV) has potential to reduce spasticity and enhance muscle strength and performance. Combined with robotic assisted movement therapy, the rehabilitation can benefit from improvement of more than one aspect. For example, FV could firstly decrease abnormally increased muscle tone and joint rigidity by tackling volitional control for easier robotic movement exercise. Exactly this approach is evaluated within a clinical trial presented in this paper. FV were applied to relaxed spastic wrist flexor and extensor muscles for 15min. Subsequently, the wrist was engaged in a robotic-assisted game-playing. Results from two cases who completed the trial showed short-term decrease in wrist stiffness as assessed by clinical spasticity measurement Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS). Active range of motion (AROM) and engineering joint stiffness (JS) measurements were estimated using a robotic apparatus and the results complemented previous observations. The AROM increased and JS decreased for both cases when compared at the beginning and at the end of each interventional session. These results are a part of an ongoing clinical trial but show promise for reducing repercussions of spasticity in incomplete spinal cord injury.
ISSN:1945-7901
DOI:10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779566