Background Gait deficits are common after stroke and can cause severe physical limitations and high costs. Robot-assisted gait rehabilitation has been used for the last decades but there is a lack of real-world data on the effectiveness of walking therapy. This was evaluated in the present study. Methods Observational retrospective registry-based study in Finland. Thirty-one acute stroke patients between late 2018 and 2022. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the characteristics of the patient population, the administration of the robot-assisted gait training, and the Functional Independence Measure. We analysed the changes over time in the robot rehabilitation parameters (steps, duration, average body weight support) with simple linear regression with rehabilitation parameter as a dependent variable and number of sessions as an independent variable, and significance of slope with t-test. Results The mean step count increased during 16 robot-assisted gait rehabilitation sessions from 563 steps to 1534 steps, the walking distance from 305 to 783 meters, and the Functional Independence Measure score from 54 to 94 points. Twenty-one (68%) patients were discharged from hospital to home. Conclusion The real-life evidence of functional improvements during robot-assisted gait rehabilitation advocates for further research and incorporation of it in stroke rehabilitation.
Tuliniemi et al. (Mon,) studied this question.