BALTIMORE, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Restorative Therapies,
Inc., advances its new era in physical therapy
systems for neurological injury and paralysis with FDA clearance of
the world’s first Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) rehabilitation
therapy system for stepping and standing.
FES is a physical therapy rehabilitation modality used to evoke
physical activity and exercise not otherwise possible for
individuals with a neurological impairment such as a spinal cord
injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy. The new
RT600 system delivers electrical currents to stimulate nerves which
activate core and leg muscles including the quadriceps, hamstrings,
gluteals, gastroc, anterior tibialis, abdominals and erector spinae
to evoke stepping and standing activity. This rehabilitation
enables a patient’s paralyzed or weak legs to move through
patterned physical activity utilizing their own muscles while
safely positioned in a partial body weight supporting harness.
“The RT600 is the first physical therapy
system to bring the established benefits of FES to weight supported
stepping for people with neurological impairments,” said Prof.
David Ditor of Brock University, in Ontario, Canada.
“It is the first truly practical rehabilitation
system of this kind that I have seen. In addition to
combining several valuable neuro-rehabilitation interventions,
functional electrical stimulation, locomotor gait training and
neuromuscular re-education, the RT600 is small and easy enough to
use that I can one day envision it in the patient’s home,” said
Cristina Sadowsky of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore,
Maryland.
“In the context of rehabilitation influencing neural
plasticity
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