Development of an Inflatable Shoulder Rehabilitation Device

Abstract

Cerebrovascular disease is commonly known as stroke and has been ranked as third in 10 Leading Causes of Death in Taiwan in 2013 Some researches mention that the major factors of stroke include diabetes hypertension and smoking Furthermore diabetes and hypertension have been ranked fifth and eighth in the 10 Leading Causes of Death respectively in Taiwan According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2007 the prevalence of hypertension and hyperglycemia are increasing with age The changes in age composition of the Taiwan population would become an aged society by 2018 and a “hyper-aged” society by 2025 From the above factors it can be inferred that Taiwan society will encounter a severe issue of stroke and after stroke rehabilitation needs and increasing burden of healthcare Many studies have been proposed early passive movement and providing the support and protection in the flaccid stage can prevent immobility soft tissue contracture and minimize the risk of HSP Rehabilitations are heavy burden of physical therapists due to a one-on-one interaction with patient has been required The purpose of our study is to develop a low cost and portable rehabilitation device for patients to rehab at home Home-based rehabilitation not only increases the convenience but also reduces the cost of rehabilitations and the burden of physical therapists The rehabilitation device we developed is conducting the shoulder abduction and adduction by inflating and deflating the airbags of device The device includes one inflatable vest (using Velcro to fix the vest on body and is suitable for both side of arm) and one control box The control box has three mode buttons - ModeⅠ/Ⅱ/Ⅲ Patient only needs to wear the inflatable vest and press the mode button which was advised by the physical therapist Then the rehabilitation device will aid patients to complete the passive movement The results of system stability test showed that the lifting angle variation of our device under different external force (0 ~ 3 kg) was below three degrees It appears that our device has good suitability for users with wide range of body weights The positive correlation between external force (0 ~2 kg) and the pressure in airbag have been found by loading vs airbag pressure experiment If the same patient’s pressure in airbag is steady rising during rehabilitation course a close attention should be paid to the muscle tension increasing Our shoulder rehabilitation device is one of the cost effective and user friendly devices for stroke patients to conduct the passive movement at home

Date of Award	2016 Aug 1
Original language	English
Supervisor	Tainsong Chen (Supervisor)