Utility of a wearable robot for the fingers that uses pneumatic artificial muscles for patients with post-stroke spasticity.

ABSTRACT

Mita M, Suzumori K, Kudo D, Saito K, Chida S, Hatakeyama K, Shimada Y, Miyakoshi N. Utility of a wearable robot for the fingers that uses pneumatic artificial muscles for patients with post-stroke spasticity. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2022; 13 12-16. Objective: We investigated the utility of a wearable robot for the fingers that we developed using pneumatic artificial muscles for rehabilitation of patients with post-stroke spasticity. Methods: Three patients with post-stroke finger spasticity underwent rehabilitation for 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 3 weeks. Passive range of motion, Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), and circumference of each finger were measured before and after training and compared. Results: The range of motion and finger circumference increased when using a wearable robot. The MAS improved partially, and no exacerbation was observed. Conclusions: The wearable robot we developed is useful for rehabilitation of post-stroke spasticity and may improve venous return.