Feasibility of visual instrumented movement feedback therapy in individuals with motor incomplete spinal cord injury walking on a treadmill

Incomplete spinal cord injury can lead to difficulty walking due to impaired proprioception. This study explores using visual feedback to help people with iSCI improve their walking. The study involved participants walking on a treadmill while receiving visual feedback on their knee angle during swing. The goal was to see if they could normalize their gait and maintain improvements after the therapy. The results suggest that this type of feedback can be an effective addition to standard gait therapies, helping people with iSCI improve their walking patterns.

• 1
  Four of five participants with iSCI showed short and medium-term benefits from the visual feedback training, indicating they could adapt their gait toward more physiological knee kinematics.
• 2
  The greatest decrease in mean norm distance (ND), indicating better gait, was observed during the first three sessions of training.
• 3
  Participants with higher vibration sensitivity in the knee joint showed greater immediate benefits from feedback training, suggesting proprioception plays a role in the effectiveness of the therapy.