@article{ref1,
title="Energy cost and psychological impact of robotic-assisted gait training in people with spinal cord injury: effect of two different types of devices",
journal="Neurological sciences",
year="2021",
author="Cavallini, Gabriella and Corbianco, Silvia and D'Avino, Carla and Franzoni, Ferdinando and Dini, Marco and Stampacchia, Giulia and Gerini, Adriana",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: In the last years, there has been an intense technological development of robotic devices for gait rehabilitation in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. The  aim of the present study was to evaluate energy cost and psychological impact during  a rehabilitation program with two different types of robotic rehabilitation systems  (stationary system on a treadmill, Lokomat, and overground walking system, Ekso GT). <br><br>METHODS: Fifteen SCI patients with different injury levels underwent robot-assisted  gait training sessions, divided into 2 phases: in the first phase, all subjects  completed 3 sessions both Lokomat and Ekso GT. Afterwards, participants were  randomly assigned to Lokomat or the Ekso for 17 sessions. A questionnaire,  investigating the subjective psychological impact (SPI) during gait training, was  administered. The functional outcome measures were oxygen consumption (VO(2)),  carbon dioxide production (VCO(2)), metabolic equivalent of task (MET), walking  economy, and heart rate (HR). <br><br>RESULTS: The metabolic responses  (7.73 ± 1.02 mL/kg/min) and MET values (3.20 ± 1.01) during robotic overground  walking resulted to be higher than those during robotic treadmill walking  (3.91 ± 0.93 mL/kg/min and 1.58 ± 0.44; p < 0.01). Both devices showed high scores  in emotion and satisfaction. Overground walking resulted in higher scores of  fatigue, mental effort, and discomfort while walking with Lokomat showed a higher  score in muscle relaxation. All patients showed improvements in walking economy due  to a decrease in energy cost with increased speed and workload. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS:  Overground robotic-assisted gait training in rehabilitation program needs higher  cognitive and cardiovascular efforts than robot-assisted gait training on a  treadmill.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1590-1874",
doi="10.1007/s10072-020-04954-w",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04954-w"
}