Research points to new walking therapy

For many, walking means freedom - the ability to move freely and safely. Walking is part of  some  recent  news on the stroke recovery front - robotic assist gets stroke patients walking:

For patients who are unable to walk following a stroke, robot-assisted gait training results in greater long-term gains in mobility than conventional therapy for those with the most severe deficits, researchers found.

In a small randomized trial, the robot-assisted therapy was better at improving walking capacity through two years, but only among those with high motor impairment, according to Giovanni Morone, MD, of the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, and colleagues.

It was also superior to conventional therapy for improving patients' mobility and ability to perform basic activities of daily living, the researchers reported online in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.