LegTutor isolated hip, knee and ankle motor control intensive exercises provide a valuable adjunct to locomotor functional therapies

In Neurorehabil Neural Repair May 2011 http://bit.ly/hkgJCE Dr. Forrester and Macko from University of Maryland Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science and the Baltimore Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge and Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore USA discuss how task-oriented therapies such as treadmill exercise can improve gait velocity after stroke, but slow velocities and abnormal gait patterns often persist. This suggests that there is a need for additional strategies to improve walking. The team looked at chronic hemiparetic gait subjects trained in dorsiflexion–plantarflexion by playing functional task games during three 1-hour training sessions weekly, totaling 560 repetitions per session. The patients showed improved paretic ankle motor control along with faster and smoother movements. This resulted in increased walking velocity.
The group concludes that focus on ankle motor control may provide a valuable adjunct to locomotor therapies.
The LegTutor system trains isolated and combined hip, knee and ankle movement and focusses on leg motor control in order to improve functional walking outcome.