NCT02096445

Neurocognitive Robot-assisted Rehabilitation of Hand Function After Stroke

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 34 (actual)
• Sponsor: Roger Gassert · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 90 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aim of this project is to clinically evaluate a novel robot-assisted therapeutic approach to train sensorimotor hand function after stroke. It combines the profound experience of the clinic Hildebrand in neurocognitive therapy - involving brain and mind in the task and training both the motor and the sensory system - with the advanced haptic robotic technology of the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), allowing unmet interaction with the hand through the simulation of virtual objects with various mechanical properties. In a randomized controlled clinical trial, 10 sub-acute stroke patients will receive four weeks of robotic therapy sessions, integrated seamlessly into their daily rehabilitation program, while 10 other patients will receive conventional therapy. The investigators will assess baseline performance in an initial clinical and robotic assessment, with another assessment at the end of the four-week period, and in follow-ups four weeks and six months later. The contents of the patient-tailored robotic therapy sessions will match those of the conventional therapy as closely as possible. This study will demonstrate the feasibility of including robotic therapy of hand function into the daily rehabilitation program, and investigate the acceptance from patients and therapists. The investigators expect increased training intensity during the robotic therapy session compared to conventional sessions with similar contents, as well as novel insights into the recovery process of both the motor and the sensory system during the four weeks of therapy, through advanced robotic assessments integrated into the training sessions. This project is a first step towards making such robotic therapy available to patients as integration into the conventional individual therapy program (e.g. for self-training), and towards transferring this technology to the home environment.

Conditions

• Stroke
• Upper Extremity Paresis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	robot-assisted neurocognitive therapy of hand function	2 degrees-of-freedom hand rehabilitation robot to train fine motor skills during grasping and forearm rotation.
OTHER	Conventional neurocognitive rehabilitation	Use sensory perception (tactile, proprioception but not vision!) to solve a by the therapist guided (passive) or patient controlled (active) therapy task, e.g. discrimination/identification of different spring resistances, sponges, different sized blocks, etc.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-04-01
• Primary completion: 2017-03-10
• Completion: 2017-06-09
• First posted: 2014-03-26
• Last updated: 2017-06-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland