Treadmill Training with Partial Body Weight Support in Hemiparetic Patients—Further Research Needed

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Abstract
Treadmill training with partial body weight support is a promising new therapy in gait rehabilitation of hemiparetic subjects. As a task-specific training it enables the repetitive practice of complex gait cycles at a very early stage. Initially two or even three therapists assist the movement so that the subjects train gait not only repeti tively but also in a correct manner. Several controlled studies have documented its effectiveness in gait rehabilitation of acute and chronic stroke patients and have shown that hemiparetic patients walked in a more dynamic, symmetric, and less spastic fash ion on the treadmill with body weight support as compared with ground-level walk ing. Nevertheless, to meet the criteria of evidence-based medicine, further compara tive studies will be needed, supplemented by research in basic neurophysiology to explain its effects and technology to alleviate the strenuous effort of therapists during the training. Possible solutions are functional electrical stimulation (FES) in combi nation with treadmill training and a mechanized gait trainer.