The Studies of Functional Electr ical Stimulation of Upper Extremities for Cervical SCI Patients

肢體的麻痺導會往往導致嚴重的運動 功能及日常活動功能喪失。然而在傳統的 復健治療下，頸髓損傷的病人的預後往往 只能以殘存的肌肉功能來決定。功能性電 剌激利用電腦控制電剌激肌肉，產生既定 的動作，可以重建患者所失去的功能。因 此功能性電剌激成為現代復健治療上，恢 復失能者日常生活能力的一種重要的工 具。 本研究研究對象著重於頸髓損傷中最 常發生的C5,C6 頸髓損傷病患。針對這些 病人的腕伸直肌、肘伸直肌都已麻痺的特 性設計功能性電剌激。第一年使用體表的 功能性電剌激合併支架使用，控制肘關節 運動與手合握之動作。此套功能性電剌激 系統包括一個由神經網路控制器，以提供 系統給予患者合適的剌激。此系統在模擬 及實驗上得到初步的成功。The loss of motor function of limbs will cause severe impairment of daily activity. In classical rehabilitation program, the outcomes of the cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients are determined by the residual motor function. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES), which stimulated paralyzed muscles by computer to provide “extra” muscle power, could restore the motor functions which could not be done in classical program. Therefore, using FES system to restore the abilities for activities of daily living is one of the major therapeutic methods in rehabilitation. The most common cervical SCI patients with C5/C6 quadriplegia are selected as our subjects. In these patients, the elbow extensors and the wrist extensors are generally paralyzed. Therefore, our goal is to use a FES system to restore the function of these paralyzed muscles with proper orthoses. In the first year, we applied the orthoses and surface FES to accomplish elbow movement and hand closing. The FES system contained a diagonal recurrent neural network controller to provide suitable stimulation. The computer simulation and clinical examination of this FES system demonstrated the preliminary success