Northern Michigan's News LeaderHealthy Living: Stroke Robot Therapy

Healthy Living: Stroke Robot Therapy

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While you read this story, someone in the U.S. will have a stroke. For many, it can disable limbs, making even simple tasks next to impossible. Now a unique trial is helping these patients get back what they've lost. Robyn Haines has your Healthy Living.

 

Last January, a stroke took away the use of 23-year-old Spencer Tuligman's right hand--the one he uses to paint. A unique clinical trial is restoring Spencer's confidence, and much more. Patients do repetitive exercises and play games wearing this motorized robotic arm, to help retrain their brain...and make their own arm's function.

 

There's one more key element to this trial-- a drug that helps the brain re-learn.

 

The robotic arm used in the study electronically measures strength and range of motion to monitor patients' progress on a daily basis. Studies in Taiwan have shown that robot-assisted therapy has measurable benefits for patients whose arms are weakened by a stroke.