Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
Volume 18, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/s12984-021-00925-0
Keywords
Robotic rehabilitation; Robotic assessment; Wrist injury; Orthopedic
Categories
Funding
- National Institute for Insurance against Accidents (INAIL)
- Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Unit of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
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This study provides new insights into the use of robot-aided rehabilitation in the orthopedic field. Comparing the effects of robot-aided rehabilitation with traditional methods on patients with wrist injuries over a 3-week period, the study found that the outcomes were comparable between the two methods.
Background: In recent years, many studies focused on the use of robotic devices for both the assessment and the neuro-motor reeducation of upper limb in subjects after stroke, spinal cord injuries or affected by neurological disorders. Contrarily, it is still hard to find examples of robot-aided assessment and rehabilitation after traumatic injuries in the orthopedic field. However, those benefits related to the use of robotic devices are expected also in orthopedic functional reeducation. Methods: After a wrist injury occurred at their workplace, wrist functionality of twenty-three subjects was evaluated through a robot-based assessment and clinical measures (Patient Rated Wrist Evaluation, Jebsen-Taylor and Jamar Test), before and after a 3-week long rehabilitative treatment. Subjects were randomized in two groups: while the control group (n = 13) underwent a traditional rehabilitative protocol, the experimental group (n = 10) was treated replacing traditional exercises with robot-aided ones. Results: Functionality, assessed through the function subscale of PRWE scale, improved in both groups (experimental p = 0.016; control p < 0.001) and was comparable between groups, both pre (U = 45.5, p = 0.355) and post (U = 47, p = 0.597) treatment. Additionally, even though groups' performance during the robotic assessment was comparable before the treatment (U = 36, p = 0.077), after rehabilitation the experimental group presented better results than the control one (U = 26, p = 0.015). Conclusions: This work can be considered a starting point for introducing the use of robotic devices in the orthopedic field. The robot-aided rehabilitative treatment was effective and comparable to the traditional one. Preserving efficacy and safety conditions, a systematic use of these devices could lead to decrease human therapists' effort, increase repeatability and accuracy of assessments, and promote subject's engagement and voluntary participation.
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