Effects of Bilateral Assistance for Hemiparetic Gait Post-Stroke Using a Powered Hip Exoskeleton
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10439_2022_Article_3041.pdf
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Author(s)
Pan, Yi-Tsen
Kang, Inseung
Joh, James
Kim, Patrick
Herrin, Kinsey R.
Kesar, Trisha M.
Sawicki, Gregory S.
Young, Aaron J.
Date Issued
August 13, 2022
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Citation
Pan, Yi-Tsen, Kang, Inseung, Joh, James, Kim, Patrick, Herrin, Kinsey R. et al. 2022. "Effects of Bilateral Assistance for Hemiparetic Gait Post-Stroke Using a Powered Hip Exoskeleton."
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Abstract
Hemiparetic gait due to stroke is characterized by an asymmetric gait due to weakness in the paretic lower limb. These inter-limb asymmetries increase the biomechanical demand and reduce walking speed, leading to reduced community mobility and quality of life. With recent progress in the field of wearable technologies, powered exoskeletons have shown great promise as a potential solution for improving gait post-stroke. While previous studies have adopted different exoskeleton control methodologies for restoring gait post-stroke, the results are highly variable due to limited understanding of the biomechanical effect of exoskeletons on hemiparetic gait. In this study, we investigated the effect of different hip exoskeleton assistance strategies on gait function and gait biomechanics of individuals post-stroke. We found that, compared to walking without a device, powered assistance from hip exoskeletons improved stroke participants’ self-selected overground walking speed by 17.6 ± 2.5% and 11.1 ± 2.7% with a bilateral and unilateral assistance strategy, respectively (p < 0.05). Furthermore, both bilateral and unilateral assistance strategies significantly increased the paretic and non-paretic step length (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that powered assistance from hip exoskeletons is an effective means to increase walking speed post-stroke and tuning the balance of assistance between non-paretic and paretic limbs (i.e., a bilateral strategy) may be most effective to maximize performance gains.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-03041-9
