BiosStep-assisted walking in spinal cord-injured patients: an evaluation report

BiosStep is a functional neuromuscular stimulation system designed to assist the gait of people with central nervous system injuries. It stimulates the quadriceps during the stance phase and the nerves in the popliteal space to produce the swing phase of the gait cycle. The gait obtained with BiosStep was assessed using kinematic analysis and it was compared with nondisabled gait. Moreover, the evolution of the physiological cost of walking using BiosStep was evaluated and compared with the gait obtained with mechanical orthoses. The kinematic analysis of the three lower limb joints showed that the angular excursion morphologies of BiosStep-assisted gait were similar to those obtained in healthy gait, but with minor amplitudes. The physiological cost indexes for the BiosStep-assisted gait were higher than those computed for the mechanical-orthoses-assisted gait. Results show the necessity to continue improving the strategies to obtain more functional movements and enhance the training of patients.