Gait Training with the Lokomat®

The Lokomat is designed to support the locomotion therapy of gait impaired patients who have suffered strokes, spinal cord in¬juries, traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis or neurological disorders. Despite the patient’s disorder, research suggests that the neural plasticity of the brain is retained and new connections can be made through intensive, repetitive movements. These exercises assist the gradual reorganization of the brain, which subsequently allows the restoration of movement and functional¬ity to the affected parts. The Lokomat enhances this process and improves the therapy outcome by providing highly intensive, individualized training in a motivational environment of constant feedback.
The Lokomat provides patients with repetitive, effective and motivating gait training. The patient obtains sensory information through stepping on the treadmill, which is an important contributor to motor relearning. Besides all scientific reasons, the pos¬sibility to walk highly motivates the patients by giving them the sensation and emotion of walking.

The advantages of the Lokomat® are:

• longer and more intensive training sessions compared to manual treadmill training
• real-time feedback for a higher motivation and compliance
• physiological gait pattern provided by individually adjustable orthosis, guidance and weight support
• assessment and reporting functionality for an easy measurement of the patient’s progress

The Lokomat has established itself as an effective method for improving over-ground walking function in patients suffering from neurological diseases and injuries. It is developed in close collaboration with leading clinical and scientific partners according to the latest findings in neurorehabilitation.

The Lokomat® features are:

• The robotic gait orthoses guide the patient’s legs on the treadmill according to a pre-programmed physiological gait pattern. The guidance can be individually adjusted to the patient’s abilities and can be reduced according to the patient’s improve¬ment.
• The dynamic body weight system Levi offers partial and continuously adjustable unloading to optimize the physiological gait pattern. The Levi is easy to use via a remote control and operates in real time during the training.
• As feedback is essential for motivation and motor relearning all Lokomat products provide a feedback on the current gait activity of the patient. The patient’s activity during the training is continuously recorded and displayed for the different phases of the walking as well as for different joints.