I hope you enjoy this edition of our In Step Newsletter.

In recent years, much attention has been paid to spinal processes involved in generation of walking function. The spinal mechanisms, responsible for generation of coordination of limbs during walking, can be stimulated by repeated practices of well-formed gait patterns via afference inputs. Partial Weight Bearing Gait therapy protocols using these concepts have been tested in clinical settings with a great degree of success. In these techniques the patient is assisted in performing a high intensity treadmill training regimen which involves correction of the patterns by the therapist if needed. The corrected movement over many repetitions on a motorized treadmill will stimulate non-cortical and cortical gait centers in a host of neurological patients. Additionally, the higher intensity of the activity tolerated by the patient, due to the supportive PWB environment, results in an increase in the total distance walked during similar therapy sessions as compared to any other form of intervention. This additive advantage can, on its own, lead to increased outcome.

When reading a journal article on the subject of supported gait training, pay special attention to how much of the increased outcome may be due to the increased distance walked—a great by-product of PWB Gait therapy.

Running Training After Stroke: A Single-Subject Report.

Miller, Ellen, Stephanie Combs, Caryn Fish, et al.

An interesting problem for patients who have suffered stroke, brain injury, or other neurological impairment is the transition from achieving functional walking patterns to regaining an ability to run. Since therapy is almost exclusively halted after the patient has achieved a minimal level of function that will allow him or her to operate safely within the community. When injury happens at a younger age (28% of strokes occur in patients under 65 years of age) it can be the case that the patient had enjoyed a certain level of physical activity before the injury—recreational running, for example—to which they never return. Whether or not therapy techniques can be used to achieve that goal has not been extensively studied. Some previous research has shown that speed-progressive gait intervention in a body weight support/treadmill (BWST) environment significantly increases overground walking and running speeds following training for a (single) patient with an incomplete C5-C6 spinal cord injury (Gardner, et al.). This success prompted the suggestion that speed-progressive gait training in a BWST environment would be a useful technique for improving functional outcomes in people with other neurological impairments.

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CEU Seminars

Mobility Research is engaged in an intensive educational program which includes inservices, seminars, lectures, exhibits, and onsite training sessions. Our accredited CEU seminars are taught by independent clinicial instructors, considered experts in the field of Gait Therapy and the treatment of children and adults with neurological and motor impairments. Click for a complete listing of upcoming CEU seminars.

Here's what one PT had to say about our Neurologic & Geriatric Rehabilitation Course, taught by Mike Studer:

"[W]e applied your treatment approaches to our patient's today and the results were amazing! We were running up and down the hallways with our Lite Gait (since we don't have a treadmill). It was such a great experience and I actually felt like an accomplished therapist today! Your course is amazing, I look forward to coming to another one of your lectures again [...] ."

- A. Kelly, OTR/L

LiteGait Training

At Mobility Research we're dedicated to keeping our customers fully trained for as long as they work with LiteGait®. Just listen to what one LiteGait user had to say:

"The training was excellent, it was really super. We will all be enjoying the LiteGait now, whereas before I was the only one using it, because nobody else knew how. I had LiteGait training 10 years ago but I felt very limited at first in who I could treat—just neuro, like a stroke or spinal cord injury. Now I understand that we can use LiteGait with any patient, weakess, poor posture, gait disturbance, etc. Now our eyes are open; everybody is using because we see the benefit for so many patients."

- W. Chalhub, PT Naples, FL

Click for details on training options.

Become a LiteGait Trainer

Mobility Research Education Department is currently recruiting and scheduling for our next "Train the Trainer Workshop" to be held August 4th & 5th, 2008. Mobility Research contracts with clinicians throughout the US to conduct 4 hour, on-site training sessions for LiteGait customers. We are very fortunate to have a highly motivated and enthusiastic core group of talented clinicians to conduct these trainings, and we are looking to expand its ranks. Click to learn more.

Hello,

I purchased a LiteGait and treadmill for my daughter's school a few years back. We got harnesses to fit everyone in the school (Monroe County Intermediate school). My daughter Rachel is 14 years old and is severely multiply impaired. She has progressed beyond her doctors' expectations with the assistance of the device.

There have been so many kids there that have done miraculously due to the LiteGait! So many have learned to walk independently. . . . This has been the best purchase that I have made in my entire life. Every time I see one of the kids, who doctors said would never walk, strolling the halls, tears well up in my eyes and I am grateful that Rachel's therapist told me about this wonderful new device that she saw . . . the LiteGait.

Thank-you.

C. Whitehouse, Monroe, MI

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