小柯机器人

美国犹他大学Tommaso Lenzi研究团队发现，动力髋关节外骨骼可改善膝上截肢者的行走效率。这一研究成果于2021年10月11日在线发表在国际学术期刊《自然—医学》上。

研究人员发现，在6名膝上截肢的人在跑步机上行走时，自主动力髋关节外骨骼辅助残肢明显改善了代谢性行走耗能，提高了15.6±2.9%（平均值±s.e.m.；双尾配对t检验，P=0.002）。观察到的代谢成本改善相当于从一个非截肢者身上卸下一个12公斤的背包。所有参与者都能在地面上使用外骨骼行走，包括开始和停止，步态平衡或稳定性没有明显的变化。这项研究表明，用动力髋关节外骨骼来帮助用户的残肢是改善截肢者行走效率的可行解决方案。通过大幅降低行走的代谢成本，这种髋关节外骨骼可能对移动性产生相当大的积极影响，并改善膝上截肢者的生活质量。

据介绍，膝上截肢严重地降低了数百万人的活动能力和生活质量。使用现有假肢的行走效率很低，行走效率差是限制行动能力的一个主要问题。

附：英文原文

Title: Powered hip exoskeleton improves walking economy in individuals with above-knee amputation

Author: Ishmael, Marshall K., Archangeli, Dante, Lenzi, Tommaso

Issue&Volume: 2021-10-11

Abstract: Above-knee amputation severely reduces the mobility and quality of life of millions of individuals. Walking with available leg prostheses is highly inefficient, and poor walking economy is a major problem limiting mobility. Here we show that an autonomous powered hip exoskeleton assisting the residual limb significantly improves metabolic walking economy by 15.6 ± 2.9% (mean±s.e.m.; two-tailed paired t-test, P=0.002) in six individuals with above-knee amputation walking on a treadmill. The observed metabolic cost improvement is equivalent to removing a 12-kg backpack from a nonamputee individual. All participants were able to walk overground with the exoskeleton, including starting and stopping, without notable changes in gait balance or stability. This study shows that assistance of the user’s residual limb with a powered hip exoskeleton is a viable solution for improving amputee walking economy. By significantly reducing the metabolic cost of walking, the proposed hip exoskeleton may have a considerable positive impact on mobility, improving the quality of life of individuals with above-knee amputations.

DOI: 10.1038/s41591-021-01515-2

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01515-2

Nature Medicine：《自然—医学》，创刊于1995年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：87.241
官方网址：https://www.nature.com/nm/
投稿链接：https://mts-nmed.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex