Author(s)

Rena Wakabayashi^1*, Kimio Saito², Toshiki Matsunaga², Satoaki Chida², Kai Kagami², Takehiro Iwami³, Satoru Kizawa⁴, Yuki Terata⁵, Masumi Ogasawara⁶, Yoichi Shimada⁷, Naohisa Miyakoshi¹

¹Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
²Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Akita University Hospital, Akita, Japan.
³Department of Mechanical Engineering, Akita University, Akita, Japan.
⁴National Institute of Technology, Akita College, Akita, Japan.
⁵Faculty of Systems Science and Technology, Akita Prefectural University, Akita, Japan.
⁶Oyu Rehabilitation Hot-Spring Hospital, Kazuno, Japan.
⁷Akita Prefectural Center on Development and Disability, Akita, Japan.

Background: Active rehabilitation of the paralyzed limb is necessary for functional recovery from upper limb paralysis after stroke. In particular, the amount of training is very important, and robot rehabilitation is useful. However, most conventional robots are expensive, large, and stationary. We have developed Rehabili-Mouse, a new tabletop rehabilitation robot that is compact and portable. The purpose of this study was to conduct paralyzed upper limb training for a patient after stroke using Rehabili-Mouse and to examine its effect. Case: The patient was a 44-year-old man who had left-sided paresis after a right cerebral infarction, 3 months after onset. The training was carried out between February 2021 and March 2021 at Oyu Rehabilitation Hotspring Hospital. The training was 20 minutes of Rehabili-Mouse in addition to 40 minutes of usual occupational therapy and performed five times a week for four weeks. Upper limb functions were evaluated before and after the training, and two questionnaires of patient satisfaction with the device and the training were administered after the completion of the training. Upper limb function improved. The patient’s satisfaction with the device was poor, but his satisfaction with the training was good. Discussion: Training for the paralyzed upper limb after stroke using Rehabili-Mouse improved upper limb function and satisfied the trained patient. We plan to increase the number of cases and conduct further studies.

Robotic Rehabilitation, Hemiplegia, Upper Limb Function

Wakabayashi, R. , Saito, K. , Matsunaga, T. , Chida, S. , Kagami, K. , Iwami, T. , Kizawa, S. , Terata, Y. , Ogasawara, M. , Shimada, Y. and Miyakoshi, N. (2021) Examination of the Effect of Rehabili-Mouse, a Desktop Rehabilitation Robot for Upper Limb Paresis after Stroke. Open Journal of Orthopedics, 11, 371-382. doi: 10.4236/ojo.2021.1112035.