Literature review on wearable systems in upper extremity rehabilitation

This paper reports a structured literature survey of research in wearable technology for upper-extremity rehabilitation, e.g., after stroke, spinal cord injury, for multiple sclerosis patients or even children with cerebral palsy. A keyword based search returned 61 papers relating to this topic. Examination of the abstracts of these papers identified 19 articles describing distinct wearable systems aimed at upper extremity rehabilitation. These are classified in three categories depending on their functionality: movement and posture monitoring; monitoring and feedback systems that support rehabilitation exercises, serious games for rehabilitation training. We characterize the state of the art considering respectively the reported performance of these technologies, availability of clinical evidence, or known clinical applications.