Advanced Equipment Development and Clinical Application in Neurorehabilitation for Spinal Cord Injury: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions

Partial to complete paralysis following spinal cord injury (SCI) causes deterioration in health and has severe effects on the ability perform activities of daily living. Following discovery neural plasticity, neurorehabilitation therapies have emerged that aim reconstruct motor circuit damaged cord. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) been incorporated into devices purposeful motions upper lower limbs, most recent which do not require percutaneous electrode placement surgery thus enable early rehabilitation after injury. FES-based shown promising results for improving limb movement, including gripping finger function, function such as stand walk. FES also employed hybrid cycling rowing increase total body fitness. Training using robots is advantageous terms consistency quality quantity movements particularly applicable walking training. Initiation reconstruction at stage SCI likely advance rapidly future, with combined use technologies regenerative medicine, brain machine interfaces, showing great promise.