Emilia Biffi
ABSTRACT
Improving walking ability is one of the main goals of a rehabilitation procedure. New technologies based on Virtual Reality (VR) has been recently flanked standard therapies. In this study, 4 children suffering from acquired brain injury (ABI) underwent a 5 session treatment with the Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL), to improve walking and balance ability. The GRAIL is an instrumented multi-sensor platform based on immersive virtual reality for gait training and rehabilitation in engaging VR environments, which has been included in few studies to evaluate gait patterns in normal and disabled people and to improve gait in adults. Results are promising: improvements were recorded at the ankle level, selectively at the affected side, and at the pelvic level, thus improving the walking pattern symmetry. Small changes were measured at the hip and knee joints, which were already comparable to healthy subjects. These results suggest that a longer intervention may be even more effective. In the next future more children will be enrolled to strongly prove the effectiveness of GRAIL in the rehabilitation of children with ABI.
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- Improving walking ability of children with acquired brain injuries by means of an immersive virtual reality platform
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