Neuroprosthesis-Functional Electrical Stimulation: Opportunities in Clinical Application for Correction of Drop-Foot

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is used to correct the foot-drop. A portable single channel low cost electrical stimulator has been developed with a very flexible architecture to optimize functionality while keeping its size and power consumption to a minimum. A microcontroller core is utilized to enable the implementation of different controls of the stimulator. The reported benefits shown by the result of FES application includes increasing speed of walking, decreasing spasticity, decreasing physiological cost index (PCI), increasing cadence, increasing range of motion of joint, increasing strength, and improving local blood flow in a paretic limb. The objective of this study was to develop the cost effective FES system & measure the effect of the stimulator in foot- drop. The ankle foot orthosis (AFO) is incorporated wit FES for better stability of the ankle. The device proved to be used for hemiplegics/incomplete spinal cord injuries (SCI) persons with foot-drop.