Effects of therapeutic gait training using a prosthesis for ambulatory subjects with hemiparesis

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In physiotherapy for hemiparetic gait, as long as the patients can use their non-paretic leg, adaptive and compensatory strategies are always used to support and move the body. In order to increase a functional-use of the paretic leg together with reduced compensatory strategies by the non-paretic leg, we applied a prosthesis to the non-paretic leg in hemiparetic gait training. The fore-aft ground reaction forces during the propulsion phase of the paretic leg were significantly increased after the prosthetic gait training. Simultaneously, the cadence and maximum gait speed were increased and the amounts of co-contraction activities during the stance phase were decreased in the vastus medialis and biceps femoris muscles as well as the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles in the nonparetic leg. Prosthetic gait training could reorganize the motor strategy for a hemiparetic gait.