FES Rehabilitative Systems for Re-Education of Walking in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injured Persons

Objective. The aim of the paper is to present various relatively simple functional electrical stimulation (FES) systems that affect neural circuits and reflex behavior by providing necessary peripheral input to the lower extremities of incomplete spinal cord injured (SCI) persons. Methods. The proposed FES re-education walking systems make use of feedback information that is transmitted from the paralyzed limb to the nonparalyzed part of the patient's body. A single gait variable can be analogously transmitted to the walking subject in a form of sensory stimulation. The information about several gait variables can be first integrated and afterwards delivered to the walking subject as a single command. Conclusions. Significant improvements in the duration of the double support phase, metabolic energy expenditure, and physiologic cost index were observed when using FES-assisted training of walking in incomplete SCI persons.