The influence of new reciprocating link medial linkage orthosis on walking and independence in a spinal cord injury patient.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of a new medial linkage reciprocating gait orthosis (MLRGO) that incorporates a reciprocal mechanism and is sensitive to pelvic motion to potentially assist paraplegic patients to walk and provide functional independence. The new orthosis was constructed and tested by a 20-year-old female paraplegic subject with transverse myelitis at T10 level, who was 4 years post injury and had also been an isocentric reciprocating gait orthosis (IRGO) user for 2 years. She received gait training for 12 weeks before undertaking gait analysis, and also completed a questionnaire that was designed to assess the perceived functionality of the new MLRGO when compared with an IRGO. The results demonstrated improvements in gait velocity, step length and cadence, and also improvement in functional independence with the new orthosis compared with an IRGO. The results demonstrated that this new MLRGO could be used for paraplegic patients who would like an improvement in functional independence and ambulation.