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Personal Computer Supported Eight Channel Surface Stimulator for Paraplegic Walking: First Results
Author(s) -
Bijak Manfred,
Hofer Christian,
Lanmüller Hermann,
Mayr Winfried,
Sauermann Stefan,
Unger Ewald,
Kern Helmut
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
artificial organs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.684
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1525-1594
pISSN - 0160-564X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1525-1594.1999.06370.x
Subject(s) - functional electrical stimulation , stimulation , physical medicine and rehabilitation , sitting , medicine , neuroprosthetics , personal computer , computer science , simulation , computer hardware , pathology
Today functional electrical stimulation (FES) is used among other treatments to restore hand and arm function, to restore mobility of the lower extremities, for phrenic pacing, and in cardiomyoplasty. Common to all FES applications is that they require careful setup of stimulation parameters. To improve these tasks, personal computer (PC) based software for stimulation parameter evaluation and data acquisition was written. First, the described software was used to mobilize paraplegic patients in conjunction with an I2C bus controlled 8 channel surface stimulator. Electrodes were placed on each leg on the m. quadriceps and m. gluteus for hip and knee extension and the peroneal nerve to elicit flexion reflex. The fourth channel was used to correspond to subjects' individual needs. The stimulation patterns for standing up, walking, and sitting down easily could be set up and optimized by adjusting up to 128 stimulation parameters in a task‐specific way.