Assessment of a robotic exoskeleton for upper limb rehabilitation

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  EXO4UL- Assessment of a robotic exoskeleton for upper limb rehabilitation of spinal cord injured patients

• IRAS ID

  312522

• Contact name

  Heba Lakany

• Contact email

  heba.lakany@liverpool.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Liverpool

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  NCT05615766

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Rehabilitation robotics has the potential to facilitate rehabilitation at home and empower people with spinal injuries to self-manage increasing their independence and improving their quality of life.
  The objective of this study is to assess for the first time in the NHS the efficacy of a commercial robotic orthosis for upper limb rehabilitation in patients with spinal cord injury. The device is produced by Myomo (myomo.com) which is an American company. We will be assessing the wearable robotic orthosis also known as robotic exoskeleton in two different neuro-rehabilitation centres: National Spinal injuries Unit in Glasgow and The Robert Jones and Agnus Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry. The study will involve nine spinal cord injured tetraplegic inpatients in total.

  Patients will follow a twelve-week rehabilitation programme with three to four sessions per week in addition to their usual care and rehabilitation. Each session lasts for approximately 45 minutes. Participants arm function, range of motion, spasticity level will be measured before, half-way and at the end of the programme to assess change in these and other parameters. Training will focus on the dominant arm of the patient and compared to the other arm at every assessment stage.

  We shall evaluate therapists’ and patients’ satisfaction with the commercial device in addition to assessing various clinical measures to evaluate the efficacy of using the robotic orthosis in rehabilitation and recovery of arm function.

• REC name

  London - City & East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  22/PR/1346

• Date of REC Opinion

  24 Oct 2022

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion