Therapeutic effects of powered exoskeletal robot-assisted gait training in inpatients in the early stage after stroke: a pilot case-controlled study

Abstract Background Robot-assisted rehabilitation is considered beneficial for functional recovery in patients with stroke, but the therapeutic effect remains inconclusive. The present study investigated the therapeutic effects of gait training assisted by a user-initiated powered exoskeletal robot (UIPER) in patients in the early stage after stroke. We also characterized patients’ improvement by analyzing chronological changes in clinical measurements together with gait parameters obtained from internal sensors in the exoskeletal robot. Methods In this pilot case-controlled study, 17 and 81 patients with stroke onset durations of