Soft robotic exosuits enhance the outcomes observed with high-intensity gait training
post-stroke
Soft robotic exosuits, when used in the context of the REAL gait training program, can amplify the effects of high-intensity gait training on post-stroke walking speed and distance. To enhance the rigor of this initial controlled evaluation of the REAL intervention, we studied the effects of dose-matched and comparable interventions to allow direct comparison between REAL and CONTROL gait training. Both the REAL and CONTROL interventions provided gait training at high-intensity and with a high-volume of steps. More specifically, study participants received 30 min cumulative of fast walking practice every session, resulting in between 2600 and 2900 steps per session during both interventions. This volume of walking practice heavily contrasts with usual care where the typical number of steps completed per session are extremely low (i.e., an average of 370 steps per therapy session [In contrast to the current study’s training dose of 6 training sessions per intervention arm, a recently completed single-arm pilot study of REAL gait training conducted by Shin et al. demonstrated that 18 sessions of REAL gat training resulted in even larger improvements in 10mWT walking speed than observed in this study, with an improvement of 0.21 m/s [