Neurology

Neuroscience

Rehabilitation

Stroke (engine)

Powered exoskeleton

Engineering

Surgery

Exoskeleton

Physical therapy

Psychology

Randomized controlled trial

Neurorehabilitation

Neuroplasticity

Medicine

Mechanical engineering

Physical medicine and rehabilitation

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

Background A novel electromechanical robotic-exoskeleton was designed in-house for the rehabilitation of wrist joint and Metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint. Objective The objective was to compare the rehabilitation effectiveness (clinical-scales and neurophysiological-measures) of robotic-therapy training sessions with dose-matched conventional therapy in patients with stroke. Methods A pilot prospective parallel randomized controlled study at clinical settings was designed for patients with stroke within 2 years of chronicity. Patients were randomly assigned to receive an intervention of 20 sessions of 45 min each, five days a week for four weeks, in Robotic-therapy Group (RG) (n = 12) and conventional upper-limb rehabilitation in Control-Group (CG) (n = 11). We intended to evaluate the effects of a novel exoskeleton based therapy on the functional rehabilitation outcomes of upper-limb and cortical-excitability in patients with stroke as compared to the conventional-rehabilitation. Clinical-scales– Modified Ashworth Scale, Active Range of Motion, Barthel-Index, Brunnstrom-stage and Fugl-Meyer (FM) scale and neurophysiological measures of cortical-excitability (using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) –Motor Evoked Potential and Resting Motor threshold, were acquired pre- and post-therapy. Results No side effects were noticed in any of the patients. Both RG and CG showed significant ( p &lt; 0.05) improvement in all clinical motor-outcomes except Modified Ashworth Scale in CG. RG showed significantly ( p &lt; 0.05) higher improvement over CG in Modified Ashworth Scale, Active Range of Motion and Fugl-Meyer scale and FM Wrist-/Hand component. An increase in cortical-excitability in ipsilesional-hemisphere was found to be statistically significant ( p &lt; 0.05) in RG over CG, as indexed by a decrease in Resting Motor Threshold and increase in the amplitude of Motor Evoked Potential. No significant changes were shown by the contralesional-hemisphere. Interhemispheric RMT-asymmetry evidenced significant ( p &lt; 0.05) changes in RG over CG indicating increased cortical-excitability in ipsilesional-hemisphere along with interhemispheric changes. Conclusion Robotic-exoskeleton training showed improvement in motor outcomes and cortical-excitability in patients with stroke. Neurophysiological changes in RG could most likely be a consequence of plastic reorganization and use-dependent plasticity. Trial registry number : ISRCTN95291802

Evidence of neuroplasticity with robotic hand exoskeleton for post-stroke rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial