Abstract
It is important that the activities of daily living of the elderly are preserved and improved. One factor that decreases the activities of daily living is the knee Extension Lag. Many elderly patients have a knee Extension Lag after Total Knee Arthroplasty. In most cases, the recovery of the extension lag is not necessary surgery, and is often enough to as perform the rehabilitation. However, physical therapists find it difficult to perform rehabilitation of patients with an Extension Lag. In this study, an instrument for automatic rehabilitation of the extension lag was developed by adapting the Knee-Assistive Instrument for Rehabilitation (KAI-R) that has been developed as the walking rehabilitation after that surgery. First, the specifications for the rehabilitation of the extension lag were considered and a control algorithm was proposed. Second, the algorithm was installed into the instrument and its effectiveness was confirmed by myoelectric potential. Finally, the instrument was examined in a clinical trial. A recovery trend of the patient and a reduction in work load of the physical therapist were confirmed.
