FUNCTIONAL & APPLIED BIOMECHANICS SECTION, REHABILITATION MEDICINE DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH CLINICAL CENTERWearable robotic “exoskeletons” improved the gait of children with cerebral palsy, scientists report in a small study published yesterday (August 23) in Science Translational Medicine.
The bespoke orthotics, custom-fitted to the children’s legs, helped extend the kids’ knees properly while they walked and corrected their crouched postures from a tendency to over-flex their knees. The devices improved knee extension in six of the seven children assessed, with effects “similar to or greater than those reported from invasive surgical interventions,” the researchers write in their report.
“It may be useful for some of those kids, but more severe kids may not benefit,” Bruce Dobkin, director of the Neurological Rehabilitation and Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells STAT. He was not involved in the work.
In the trial, seven children ages five to 19 went through four practice sessions, each a couple of hours long, over the course ...
