Effects of gait training with using HAL® on gait functions of chronic stroke patients

Recently, the robot-assisted rehabilitation has emerged as a promising new technology for patients with severe lower limb impairment The effect of rehabilitation including the concepts of repetitive, intensive, task-orientated training, which has been shown to be effective for chronic stroke patients, may be facilitated by using robotics in improving physical functions of patients The aim of the present study is to investigate whether gait training using a robot suit HAL® (Hybrid Assistive Limb: an exoskeleton robot that enhances the limb motion of the human body by detecting the weak bioelectrical nerve signals) would improve gait functions in chronic stroke patients. Fourteen patients with chronic stroke in Kyoto University Hospital were participated in the study They received 8 gait training sessions (60 min/session) using HAL® of double leg type during 3 weeks Before and after intervention, gait speed (m/s), stride length (m), cadence (step/min), and 2-minute walk distance (m) were measured Paired t test was used to determine the differences in outcome measurements between before and after intervention Spearman's rank correlated coefficients were calculated between change percentage of gait speed and change percentage of gait parameter (stride length or cadence). Gait speed (0.56 ± 0.32 → 0.71 ± 0.41 m/s), stride length (0.72 ± 0.32 → 0.82 ± 0.35 m), cadence (90.0 ± 29.4 → 98.7 ± 33.2 step/min), and 2-minute walk distance (62.2 ± 34.7 → 77.9 ± 45.2 m) increased significantly after the intervention The change percentage of gait speed was significantly correlated with the change percentage of stride length (r = 0.75), but not with cadence. The results of the present study demonstrated that gait training using HAL® was an effective intervention, especially in improving spatiotemporal gait parameters and gait distance in chronic stroke patients.