Functional electrical stimulation-assisted walking for persons with incomplete spinal injuries: Longitudinal changes in maximal overground walking speed

This study investigated the changes in maximal overground walking speed (MO WS) that occurred during; walking training with a functional electrical sti mulation (FES) orthosis by chronic spinal cord injured persons with incompl ete motor function loss. The average walking: speed over a distance of 10 m was calculated while the participants (n = 14) used their FES orthosis wit h and without power as well as with the various ambulatory assistive device s available. Within the first year of use, walking with an FES orthosis fac ilitated use of more advanced ambulatory assistive devices (10/14), improve ments in functional mobility (12/14) and increases in the combined (0.26 m/ s) and therapeutic (0.25 mis) MOWS that were correlated (combined: r = 0.57 ; therapeutic: r = 0.69) with their respective initial MOWS, A longitudinal analysis showed that increases in MOWS followed a pattern of changes best described by either an exponential association (8/12) or a linear (4/12) mo del. These changes were similar for the combined and therapeutic MOWS (7/11 ) as well as for the different ambulatory assistive devices (8/9). It is co ncluded that the increased MOWS during walking training using the FES ortho sis is mostly due to a therapeutic effect, implying that mechanisms of plas ticity occur during such a training paradigm.