Subscribe and listen to this podcast on SoundCloud or iTunes.

This Journal Club Podcast is brought to you by Association of Academic Physiatrists and features research published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

Pablo Celnik, MD, Interim Director, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine interviews Joel Stein, MD co-author of the AJPMR article entitled "Gait Training with a Robotic Leg Brace After Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study."

OBJECTIVE: Robot-aided exercise therapy is a promising approach to enhance walking ability in stroke survivors. This study was designed to test a new robotic knee brace for restoring mobility in stroke survivors.

DESIGN: Twenty-four ambulatory individuals with chronic hemiparesis after stroke were enrolled in this pilot study. The participants were randomly assigned in equal numbers to either treatment with the experimental device or to a group exercise program and received a total of 18 hrs of their assigned therapy during a 6-wk training period. The primary outcome was gait velocity, as measured with the 10-m walk test. Secondary measures included 6-min walk test, Timed Up and Go test, Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand test, Romberg test, Emory Functional Ambulation Profile, Berg Balance scale, and the California Functional Evaluation 40.

CONTRIBUTORS

• Joel Stein, MD

Dr. Stein is Physiatrist-in-Chief for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals. His clinical and research interests are in the rehabilitation of stroke and other neurological disorders. He has had a particular focus on the use of exercise as a treatment, and on the use of robotic and other technologies to facilitate recovery of motor function after stroke. He has authored or coauthored two books on stroke recovery and rehabilitation for stroke survivors and their families, and edited a multi-authored medical textbook on this subject entitled "Stroke Recovery and Rehabilitation."