Discussion Based upon individual risk factors, podiatrists have an important role to in play in reducing the risk of falls by means of foot health care itself, patient education, health promotion, rehabilitation and mobility. This includes assessing and treating foot pain, identifying and correcting underlying biomechanical and gait abnormalities, prescribing exercise programmes and issuing foo...

Stroke is the leading cause of disability in older Americans. Each year 750,000 Americans suffer a stroke, two thirds of whom are left with neurological deficits that persistently impair function. Principal among them is hemiparetic gait that limits mobility and increases fall risk, promoting a sedentary lifestyle. These events propagate disability by physical deconditioning and "learned non-us...

Elizabeth M. Hannold, PhD; Coauthors not pictured: Jini M. Hanjian, PhD; Meggan M. Jordan, MA; Mary Joan Roach, PhD; and Craig A. Velozo, PhD Innovative rehabilitation interventions and technologies aimed at recovery of walking show great promise and are receiving considerable support from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service. For exampl...

Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) is a system that integrates a training platform (motion base), a virtual environment, a sensor system (motion capture) and D-flow software. It is useful for both diagnostic and therapeutic use. The human gait pattern can be impaired due to disease, trauma or natural decline. Gait analysis is a useful tool to identify impaired gait patterns. T...

Gait analysis using smart sensor technology is an important medical diagnostic process and has many applications in rehabilitation, therapy and exercise training. In this paper, we present a low power wireless smartshoe system to analyze different functional postures and characteristics of gait while walking. We have designed and implemented a smartshoe with a Bluetooth communication module to ...

Even though the amount of rehabilitation guidelines has never been greater, uncertainty continues to arise regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the rehabilitation of gait disorders. This question has been hindered by the lack of information on accurate measurements of gait disorders. Thus, this article reviews the rehabilitation systems for gait disorder using vision and non-vision sen...

Experimental and control groups of 10 hemiparetic stroke patients each underwent a 6 week, twice daily gait training program. The control group participated in a conventional physical therapy gait program. The experimental group trained in the same basic program with the addition of rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS). Patients entered the study as soon as they could complete 5 strides with han...

Study Design Systematic review. Clinical Questions (1) When used as an assistive device, do wearable exoskeletons improve lower extremity function or gait compared with knee-ankle-foot orthoses (KAFOs) in patients with complete or incomplete spinal cord injury? (2) When used as a rehabilitation device, do wearable exoskeletons improve lower extremity function or gait compared with other rehabil...

BACKGROUND Walking ability is a priority for many children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their parents when considering domains of importance regarding treatment interventions. Partial body-weight supported treadmill training has become an established therapeutic treatment approach to address this demand. Further, new robotic rehabilitation technologies have increasingly been implemented in the ...