Assessing the Effectiveness of Lower Limb Home Exercises with the Use of a Prototype Exercise Robot for Continuous Passive Movement in People with Tetraparesis in the Long-Term Follow-Up: a Preliminary Report

Introduction: Chronic venous insufficiency is the most commonly occurring vascular disease. One of the major risk factors for its development is long-term sitting or standing in prolonged unchanged position and the nature performed work.

Study aim: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of lower limb home exercises limb with the use of the Bella Vena robot following disease onset causing tetraparesis in long-term observation.

Materials and methods: A group of 15 patients (43.80 ± 14.97 years) was enrolled in the study. These patients had experienced whiplash injury causing total or partial inertia, with preserved mobility in the ankle joints. The total duration of the observation lasted 8 months (8 visits), during which the following parameters were assessed at the beginning and end of this period: pain intensity – according to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), level of saturation on the toe, pulse rate of the lower limb via Doppler ultrasound evaluation of reflux parameters.

Result: Statistically significant improvement was achieved after home exercises within the following ranges - quality of pain intensity on VAS (p≤0.01), saturation at the level of the big toe (p≤0.05), Doppler ultrasound: reflux in the right femoral vein (p≤0.05), Doppler ultrasound: reflux in the left femoral vein (p≤0.05)

Conclusion: Home exercises with using a prototype of the Bella Vena device showed a moderate effect on improving calf pump in the group of patients with quadriplegia in long-term observation.

