Title :
Use of a pneumatic glove for hand rehabilitation following stroke
Author :
Connelly, Lauri ; Stoykov, Mary Ellen ; Jia, Yicheng ; Toro, Maria L. ; Kenyon, Robert V. ; Kamper, Derek G.
Author_Institution :
Rehabilitation Inst. of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Abstract :
Hand impairment is common following stroke and is often resistant to traditional therapy methods. Successful interventions have stressed the importance of repeated practice to facilitate rehabilitation. Thus, we have developed a servo-controlled glove to assist extension of individual digits to promote practice of grasp-and-release movements with the hand. This glove, the PneuGlove, permits free movement of the arm throughout its workspace. A novel immersive virtual reality environment was created for training movement in conjunction with the device. Seven stroke suvrvivors with chronic hand impairment participated in 18 training sessions with the PneuGlove over 6 weeks. Overall, subjects displayed a significant 6-point improvement in the upper extremity score on the Fugl-Meyer assessment and this increase was maintained at the evaluation held one month after conclusion of all training (p < 0.01). The majority of this gain came from an increase in the hand/wrist score (3.8-point increase, p < 0.01). Thus, the system shows promise for rehabilitative training of hand movements after stroke.
Keywords :
handicapped aids; patient rehabilitation; prosthetics; Fugl-Meyer assessment; PneuGlove; chronic hand impairment; free movement; grasp-and-release movements; hand movements; hand rehabilitation; pneumatic glove; servo-controlled glove; stroke suvrvivors; wrist; Aged; Computer Simulation; Equipment Design; Exercise Therapy; Hand; Hand Strength; Human Engineering; Humans; Middle Aged; Pilot Projects; Recovery of Function; Stroke; Treatment Outcome; Upper Extremity;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
Minneapolis, MN
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3296-7
Electronic_ISBN :
1557-170X
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5335400