Looking for a motorized machine for knees

SurbhiB · April 2018

Hi I m Surbhi Bansal. Age 34 I have cerebral palsy. Spastic diplegia. I walk using ago n elbow crutches. I have gone through number of surgeries. But the condition just worsened. I have lot of pain in my foot. I m searching a product which is motorized and a small device which could be put over the knees and would help us walking straight without any afo or crutches. I saw on this product called mygait offered by Ottobock. But it's only used for foot drop. If anybody is aware of anything like this available in any part of the world please let me know.

JennysDad · April 2018

Hello Surbhi @SurbhiB and a warm welcome to the community. I don't have an answer for you I'm afraid, but I'm sure some of our members will come back with something. Just bear with us

And if there are any questions you would like to ask, or anything else you would like to tell us, please don't hesitate.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard

Jean_OT · April 2018

Hi @SurbhiB

Welcome to the community.

Unfortunately I don't think the product you are seeking is currently commercially available. The Mygait product and similar products such as Walkaide: http://www.walkaide.com/videocenter/pages/cerebralpalsy.aspx are not 'motorised' but use FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) to help people with drop foot walk without stumbling.

The 'typical' walking gait of individual with diplegia is very different from drop foot and varies greatly between individuals. I am aware of some trials of using FES for children with diplegia:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287602380_Effect_of_Functional_Electrical_Stimulation_FES_when_combined_with_gait_training_on_treadmillin_children_with_spastic_diplegia

but I'm not aware of this resulting in any commercially available product at this time.

When you mentioned a motorised device for walking it made me think of the research being done on using exoskeleton technology to assist people with cp:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/robotic-exoskeletons-show-promise-as-tool-to-help-kids-with-cerebral-palsy-walk-easier/

I think this research hasn't yet lead to a commercially available product but there does seem to be positive advancements happening so maybe something will be available in the future.

Best Wishes

Jean

Looking for a motorized machine for knees

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