Feasibility and Practice Characteristics of FNS and Gait Robot

Conventional therapies do not restore normal gait for many stroke survivors. The long-term goal of this work is to restore volitional lower limb motor control and gait following stroke. In our prior work, we demonstrated that it was feasible to provide a clinically operated, combined treatment of body weight supported treadmill training alone (BWSTT) + functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS) using intramuscular (IM) electrodes (FNS-IM).

Specific Aims and Hypothesis The purpose or Specific Aim of the study is to test the feasibility and gait training potential of combining the Lokomat and FNS-IM for stroke survivors. Given the feasibility of our clinically operated combination of BWSTT + FNS-IM, we propose to test the feasibility of the combination of Lokomat + FNS-IM.

Hypothesis I. It is feasible to utilize a clinically operated combination of Lokomat + functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS) with intramuscular (IM) electrodes (FNS-IM).

Treatment Procedures. The subjects will be treated for three months, four sessions/week (for a total of 48 treatment visits). A given session will be 1 hrs, with the time divided into thirds as follows: 1) hr coordination exercise; 2) hr over ground gait training; and 3) hr Lokomat gait training. FNS-IM will be used in all three aspects of the protocol, unless the subject is capable of volitionally executing a given movement or gait component. Population. The subjects will be chronic stroke survivors (>6 months after the stroke).