A randomized controlled trial on the recovery process of wrist rehabilitation assisted by Electromyography (EMG)-Driven robot for chronic stroke

The effect of using robots to improve motor recovery has received increased attention, while the treatment effectiveness remains a topic of study. We compared the training effects by treatments on the wrist joint of chronic stroke patients with an electromyography (EMG)-driven robot (interactive group, n = 15) and a robot with continuous passive motion (passive group, n = 12) by a randomized controlled trial. The interactive treatment with the EMG-driven robot improved the motor function for both the wrist and elbow joints in muscle coordination and spasticity reduction after the training, which could be kept for 3 months. The passive mode training mainly reduced the spasticity in the wrist flexor, but did not contribute to the muscle coordination improvement.