The Rutgers Arm, a Rehabilitation System in Virtual Reality: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Its prevalence calls for innovative rehabilitation methods. The Rutgers Arm is a novel upper extremity rehabilitation system consisting of a low-friction table, three-dimensional (3D) tracker, custom forearm support, PC workstation, library of Java 3D virtual reality (VR) exercises, clinical database module, and a tele-rehabilitation extension. The system was tested on a chronic stroke subject, under local and tele-rehabilitation conditions, over 5 weeks of training. Results show improvements in arm motor control and shoulder range of motion, corresponding to improved Fugl-Meyer test scores. Exercise duration, level of difficulty, and patient motivation were maintained under tele-rehabilitaion. A 1-week retention trial showed that gains were maintained.

Telerehabilitation and recovery of motor function: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Among these 64 papers were excluded for the following reasons: 35 because the ICTs used were not aimed to rehabilitation purposes ; eight papers were protocols of ongoing studies and results were not available [52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] ; seven studies did not have a control group [60][61][62][63][64][65][66] ; five because the intervention setting was the same in the two groups 8,[67][68][69][70] ; five were pilot studies [71][72][73][74][75] ; two were secondary analysis of RCTs already included 76,77 ; two studies were excluded because the poor reporting precluded any possible assessment of its eligibility 78,79 . Finally, 12 RCTs for a total of 1047 participants were included in the review ( Figure 1).…”

Noninvasive brain stimulation in stroke rehabilitation

“…8,9 In recent years, new strategies in repetitive motor training have raised substantial interest, including constraint-induced therapy, 10 -12 bilateral arm training, 13,14 body-weight support treadmill training, [15][16][17] robotic assisted therapy, 18 -24 and use of virtual reality protocols. [25][26][27][28][29][30] …”

An interactive Internet-based system for tracking upper limb motion in home-based rehabilitation

“…Due to the small size of the data file that was used to control the 3D animation, the historical rehabilitation data can be easy stored locally and transmitted remotely via the internet. To our knowledge, so far, many studies in the 3D animation have been developed for virtual rehabilitation games (such as work in [5,11,13]), but little research has been carried out in the data-driven 3D animation for rehabilitation exercises. This is a novel area open for investigation.…”

“…Many people live with moderate to severe disabilities as a result (The Stroke Association, 2006). Economic pressures within the National Health Service, and from health insurers, have forced such people to return to their homes immediately after initial rehabilitation in hospitals [13]. Patient treatment is generally stopped 6-9 months after release from hospital; however, motor function may take years to recover [7-10, 12, 14-16].…”