Abstract
Although there had been many studies on Therapeutic Electrical Stimulation (TES) for the hemiplegic gait, universal TES method has not been established yet. In this study, we focused on the immediate effect of TES mainly for ankle dorsi-flexors, and analyzed the parameters of TES effect. The analysis was made on five hemiplegics with spasticity of ankle planto-flexors by using the system of gait motion analysis before and just after TES. TES was applied on common peroneal nerve by using surface electrodes, and induced the motions of ankle dorsi-flexion and eversion. All five cases showed the increase in some parameters such as gait velocity, stride length, cadence, hip flexion angle, knee flexion angle and ankle dorsi-flexion angle. Especially, angle and angle velocity of hip flexion showed the increase in all cases, and it was speculated that TES effect was seen more mainly in the proximal part of the lower extremity than the distal part. The afferent TES effect induces the change in activity of proximal muscles. The afferent TES effect were thought to be more were thought to be more essential for the estimation of TES effects and decision of TES methods than the efferent effect.
