Combining a robotic device and a serious game to assess and rehabilitate the upper limb in stroke patients

Dehem, Stéphanie [UCL]

Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability. Despite intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation, many patients retain permanent neurological impairments. Rehabilitation robots and serious games constitute two innovative technologies that are increasingly used to rehabilitate these impairments. Roboticassisted therapy (RAT) follows current guidelines for neurorehabilitation. For serious games, one of the main interests is the continuous adaptation of the exercise characteristics according to the patient’s individual performances. The entertaining aspect is also essential in order to increase the enjoyment and the patient’s involvement in treatment. This PhD thesis aims to develop a new serious game implemented on an upper limb end-effector robot. It includes a new protocol for assessing upper limb motor performances and a regulation system in order to adapt continuously game characteristics to patient’s performances. This PhD thesis also investigated upper limb RAT effectiveness, in the early rehabilitation phase after stroke, when provided as partial substitution to conventional therapy. The study design was a single-blind, randomised, controlled trial. RAT was significantly more effective for upper limb motor control and gross manual dexterity compare to conventional therapy alone and it was similar to conventional therapy for activity and social participation domains. Finally, RAT is relevant for upper limb post-stroke rehabilitation and should be included in clinical practice.