Ankle-foot passive motion prototype for stroke patients

Abstract

Many stroke patients become disabled and cannot return to work. Some of the reasons are from complications such as ankle joint stiffness and muscle contracture which is caused by immobilization. In order to prevent and reduce the possibility of ankle joint stiffness, the rehabilitation of the ankle should be performed properly and regularly. In this paper, the prototype of ankle-foot passive motion device to prevent ankle joint stiffness for stroke patients is proposed. The device is designed simplicity in a way that the stroke patients can move their ankles by themselves which do not required the help from relatives or caregivers. In addition, the device can be applied to use for physiotherapist's rehabilitation program that is specifically designed according to an ability of individual patient. The prototype of ankle-foot passive motion device is safe, easy to use and does not require an additional power supply. Moreover, it is easy to maintenance and the price is inexpensive so that stroke patients can easily use this device to perform their ankle rehabilitation at home. According to the experimental results, the proposed ankle-foot passive motion prototype device can reduce ankle joint stiffness for 73.5 %.