Post-Brain Injury Walking and Balance Recovery Program

Overview

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a walking and balance training program designed to safely challenge and improve walking performance and balance in relation to walking speed, strength, endurance, and balance after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The aim and primary hypothesis of this research project is: Aim) Test and implement a new personalized intervention strategy, in addition to usual and customary care at an inpatient rehabilitation clinic, to improve patient outcomes with secondary conditions associated with impaired balance and walking that typically occur post brain injury. After validation of the locomotor Battery of tests, we will implement a personalized training strategy for individuals based on their battery profile. Hypothesis) Individuals training with this individualized protocol will demonstrate improved walking and balance outcomes and those with lesser pre-intervention impairment will improve at a greater rate than those with greater pre-intervention impairment.

Traumatic brain injury, due to trauma and/or neurologic disease, is a leading cause of long-term disability in the United States . Balance impairments observed within the post-TBI population can greatly impact walking abilities and pose a variety of challenges (1, 2). Ochi et al (2) reported that survivors of a TBI may have a gait characterized by an asymmetrical pattern with a prolonged stance phase and a shorter step length for the less-affected limb. Such impairments can interfere with a person's ability to walk and may create dependency on a caregiver or an assistive device. Following hospital discharge, there is a greater fall risk as well as a decrease in physical activity and an increase in sedentary behaviors that lead to deconditioning . Improving a person's ability to walk is often one of the most important parts of their rehabilitation program after a TBI. The importance of repetitive, task-based walking practice to get people to a point where they can walk normally has been recognized and built into the rehabilitation setting. Schmidt and Lee say that motor learning shows a neural specificity of practice because it involves the integration of sensory and motor information, which happens during practice and leads to the sensorimotor solution that leads to accurate, consistent, and skilled movements. It has been shown that rehabilitation based on the ideas of repetitive, intensive, task-oriented training works (2). Clinicians use their bodies to lift, move, and provide "safety nets" for patients who may be up to three times larger than they are. The intensity and duration of physical therapy sessions are often limited due to the exhaustion of the clinician. Safety concerns sometimes limit the extent to which the clinician is able to challenge the patient as much as possible to enhance learning, because falls and other injuries are not desirable. Robots are tireless, precise devices that can do repetitive motion. In these rather early days in the development of human-machine interactions, there are many unrealized functions that robotic technology can do for rehabilitation (3). The device, the KineAssist MX (https://www.woodway.com/products/kineassist/ ) can facilitate, rather than replace, the efforts of a therapist. This collaborative approach in rehabilitation robotic design was utilized by starting with the end user (clinician) and implementing the feedback received to create a device that assists with functional mobility in stroke rehabilitation. Improvement of walking and balance outcomes in gait-impaired population requires the re-evaluation of current approaches and the testing/implementation of new approaches. This study will involve the use of a robotic treadmill device to ameliorate physical therapy gait rehabilitation sessions for people with TBI condition and compare their walking abilities before and after our training protocol. In this study, we will be evaluating our novel gait training protocol efficacy for improving TBI individuals walking regarding their endurance, balance, and strength. If it is found that walking performance improves significantly for TBI individuals who are trained by this device, particularly for people with the greatest walking and balance impairment, clinicians and physical therapists can consider implementing this protocol for the TBI population's walking and balance rehabilitation.