TEM: THERAPEUTIC EXERCISE MACHINE FOR HIP AND KNEE JOINTS OF SPASTIC PATIENTS

POSTER SUBMISSION

Taisuke Sakaki1, Seiichiro Okada1, Yasutomo Okajima2, Naofumi Tanaka2, Akio Kimura2, Shigeo Uchida2, Masaya Taki2, Yutaka Tomita3, and Toshio Horiuchi3

1Yaskawa Electric Co., Tsukuba, Japan;
2Tsukigase Rehabilitation Ctr., Keio Univ., Tsukigase, Japan;
3Faculty of Science & Technology, Keio Univ., Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

The Therapeutic Exercise Machine (TEM) is a newly developed exercise machine for the hip and knee joints of spastic patients. This study aims at evaluating the short-term effects of Continuous Passive Range of Motion Exercise (CPROM-E) on passive resistive torque of the hip and knee in spastic patients and in normal subjects. During the CPROM-E in 40 individual sessions, TEM carried out CPROM-E of the lower extremity copying the therapistsÕ initial motion, and recorded the load torque of each subjectÕs hip joint and the integrated EMG (I-EMG) of the subjectÕs quadriceps femoris and hamstrings. In the normal subjects, the peak torque of the hip significantly decreased by 5 percent, and the peak amplitude of I-EMG was not always reduced. In the spastic patients, the peak torque significantly decreased by 35 percent, and the peak amplitude of I-EMG significantly decreased after exercise on TEM. These results suggest that CPROM-E with TEM may have beneficial effects in the management of spasticity.
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Last modified: Mon Feb 1 16:41:30 PST 1999