Patients’ follow-up using biomechanical analysis of rehabilitation exercises

Thanks to the evolution of game controllers video games are becoming more and more popular in physical rehabilitation. The integration of serious games in rehabilitation has been tested for various pathologies. Parallel to this clinical research, a lot of studies have been done in order to validate the use of these game controllers for simple biomechanical evaluation. Currently, it is thus possible to record the motions performed by the patients during serious gaming exercises for later analysis. Therefore, data collected during the exercises could be used for monitoring the evolution of the patients during long term rehabilitation. Before using the parameters extracted from the games to assess patients’ evolution two important aspects must be verified: the reproducibility of measurement and a possible effect of learning of the task to be performed. Ten healthy adults played 9 sessions of specific games developed for rehabilitation over a 3-weeks period. Nineteen healthy children played 2 sessions to study the influence of age. Different parameters were extracted from the games: time, range of motion, reaching area. Results of this study indicates that it is possible to follow the evolution of the patients during the rehabilitation process. The majority of the learning effect occurred during the very first session. Therefore, in order to allow proper regular monitoring, the results of this first session should not be included in the follow-up of the patient.