2006 Volume 14 Issue 3 Pages 69-74
Patients with C6-level cervical spine injuries can move their arms only feebly, if at all, and their grip has no strength. We have developed an upper-arm rehabilitation system that rehabilitates such patients to the extent that they can take meals by themselves in half a year. In this system, a patient traces a target point moving at a constant speed on a monitor screen with a pointer that he can operate by a joystick. The fingers of the patient's hand are placed on the joystick and the back of the hand is secured by a hook-and-loop tape fastener. The joystick is movable in a range of two to three millimeters, with a resilience that stimulates the patient's arm. The patient follows the motion of the target point with his eyes and changes the direction of input to the joystick accordingly. Upper-arm function improves as the training continues. Physical rehabilitation methods are evaluated in different ways for different pathological conditions and training methods. In this study the evaluation procedure was standardized by use of the MTA method to support diagnosis as well as providing rehabilitation benefits for the patient.
