Seattle based Cadence Biomedical, manufacturer of Kickstart, announces a peer-reviewed study demonstrating its use in gait training was recently published.

The clinical case series, published in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation International, describes the outcomes when patients with stoke or spinal cord impairment reach a plateau in their therapy, and then begin using Kickstart.

As described in a media release from Cadence Biomedical, Kickstart is a wearable rehabilitation device that uses a spring-based technology to help enable proper walking. Per the company’s website, Kickstart incorporates an Exotendon that works like an artificial tendon and helps assist proper leg advancement and increase the user’s ability to walk.

According to the study, patients integrated Kickstart during both PT-supervised gait training and at home. Each case served as their own control, since all participants had recently plateaued in progress with conventional therapy and were exercising and walking at home for 8 to 12 weeks prior to beginning the case study training protocol, the release explains.

In addition to improvements in walking speed and distance, participants demonstrated gains in gait quality and independent function that were maintained even when Kickstart was no longer used. The study found that in each case, walking speed and endurance progressed for each patient, with improvement of walking distance ranging from 1.8 to five times farther as a result of using Kickstart. All patients were able to walk an average of two times faster than at baseline, the release continues.

For more information, visit Cadence Biomedical.

[Source(s): Cadence Biomedical, Business Wire]