Unweighting: Maximizing Use of the X, Y, and Z Axis
Specialized technologies are improving how gait patients get past their fear of falling and optimize their progress in lower extremity rehab
By Monty Merrill, MS, PT, OCS, FAAOMPT
Technologies designed to provide therapeutic activity for the lower extremities have helped expand the approaches therapists use in designing interventions for patients who are battling gait impairments. Regardless of whether the cause of impairment is orthopedic or neurological, technologies that unload body weight, build strength, improve balance, or measure and assess gait all have increased the specificity with which therapists may address lower limb impairment. This is as true for athletes as it is for the frail elderly.