Interfacing a Haptic Robotic System With Complex Virtual Environments to Treat Impaired Upper Extremity Motor Function in Children With Cerebral Palsy
By Fluet, Gerard G.; Qiu, Qinyin; Kelly, Donna; Parikh, Heta D.; Ramirez, Diego; Saleh, Soha; Adamovich, Sergei V.; Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Volume 13, Number 5, pages 335-345Publication Date: October 2010
Study investigated the ability of a robot assisted virtual rehabilitation system training to elicit changes in upper extremity (UE) function in children with hemiplegia secondary to cerebral palsy. The technology used was the New Jersey Institute of Technology Robot Assisted Virtual Rehabilitation (NJIT-RAVR) system, which consists of the Haptic Master, a 6 degrees of freedom force controlled robot, combined with a ring gimbal. A three dimensional (3D) force sensor measures the external force exerted by the user on the robot. End point position and velocity are measured in real time by the robot. The ring gimbal, when installed as the end effector, records forearm orientation angles and adds the possibility of perturbing forearm rotation. Nine children with hemiplegia secondary to cerebral palsy and a mean age of 9 years, 3 of whom were boys, participated in 3 pilots. Participants trained 1 hour, 3 days a week for 3 weeks. The third group also performed 5 to 6 hours of constraint induced movement therapy. Participants’ extremities were supported in volar forearm or hand based positional splints chosen by their therapists and were secured during training in a Leckey chair system. All participants completed training sessions without adverse effects. As a group, participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements in Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function Test, a composite of 3 timed UE tasks, and several measurements of reaching kinematics. Several participants demonstrated clinically significant improvements in active shoulder abduction and flexion as well as forearm supination. Study limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
Published by: Informa Healthcare (Website:http://www.informa.com/)
Link to text: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025751/
