Motor rehabilitation - we can succeed

Chaotic perturbations to avoid falls in elderly - SMILING

2011-02-07T14:49:00.002+02:00

Researchers in Europe continue the good fight against age-related impairments and in favour of social inclusion. Experts from the SMILING ('Self mobility improvement in the elderly by counteracting falls') project, initiated by Step of Mind ltd, focused on prevention of falls by training the elderly to walk on uneven ground while carrying out another activity. The result? A pair of computer-controlled shoes that simulate changes in the height and slope of the ground beneath a user's feet during active walking.

SMILING offers life satisfaction - Headlines - Research – European Commission: "SMILING offers life satisfaction - Headlines - Research – European Commission"

CP before is was CP

2011-01-10T12:09:00.005+02:00

Deformations have been attributed to supernatural causes since antiquity. Cerebral palsy was associated with God's wrath, witchcraft, the evil eye, or maternal imagination. Greek scholars recommended prevention by tight swaddling, a custom that persisted into modern times. In the Middle Ages, the midwife's negligence was held responsible as was difficult teething. Morgagni described in 1769 that the neonatal brain can liquefy, and Bednar described leukomalacia in 1850 as a distinct disorder of the newborn. In 1861, Little associated cerebral palsies with difficult or protracted labor and neonatal asphyxia, but he was challenged by Freud, who in 1897 declared that most cases are prenatal in origin. In 1868, Virchow demonstrated inflammatory changes, a view recently confirmed by Leviton and Nelson. Although a causal relationship of cerebral palsy to the birth never has been established, the habit to put the blame for cerebral palsy on someone remained a frequent attitude.

Obladen M. J Child Neurol. 2010

Wrist vibration improves arm movements

2010-10-12T14:01:00.002+02:00

Effects of Wrist Tendon Vibration on Targeted Upper-Arm Movements in Poststroke Hemiparesis
Megan O. Conrad, Robert A. Scheidt, Brian D. Schmit
Abstract
Background. Impaired motor control of the upper extremity after stroke may be related to lost sensory, motor, and integrative functions of the brain. Artificial activation of sensory afferents might improve control of movement by adding excitatory drive to sensorimotor control structures. The authors evaluated the effect of wrist tendon vibration (TV) on paretic upper-arm stability during point-to-point planar movements. Methods. TV (70 Hz) was applied to the forearm wrist musculature of 10 hemiparetic stroke patients as they made center-out planar arm movements. End-point stability, muscle activity, and grip pressure were compared as patients stabilized at the target position for trials completed before, during, and after the application of the vibratory stimulus. Results. Prior to vibration, hand position fluctuated as participants attempted to maintain the hand at the target after movement termination. TV improved arm stability, as evidenced by decreased magnitude of hand tangential velocity at the target. Improved stability was accompanied by a decrease in muscle activity throughout the arm as well as a mean decrease in grip pressure. Conclusions. These results suggest that vibratory stimulation of the distal wrist musculature enhances stability of the proximal arm and can be studied further as a mode for improving end-point stability during reaching in hemiparetic patients.

Stroke statistics - cost and recovery

2010-07-18T11:16:00.001+03:00

Total cost of stroke to the United States: estimated at about $43 billion per year
Direct costs for medical care and therapy: estimated at about $28 billion per year
Indirect costs from lost productivity and other factors: estimated at about $15 billion per year
Average cost of care for a patient up to 90 days after a stroke: $15,000
For 10 percent of patients, cost of care for the first 90 days after a stroke: $35,000

Percentage of direct cost of care for the first 90 days:
Initial hospitalization = 43 percent
Rehabilitation = 16 percent
Physician costs = 14 percent
Hospital readmission = 14 percent
Medications and other expenses = 13 percent.

The Effects of a Stroke (from the National Stroke Association):

10 percent of stroke survivors recover almost completely
25 percent recover with minor impairments
40 percent experience moderate to severe impairments that require special care
10 percent require care in a nursing home or other long-term facility
15 percent die shortly after the stroke.

In addition, approximately 14 percent of stroke survivors experience a second stroke in the first year following a stroke.

In the Bouquet of Israeli Success

2010-01-03T11:26:00.002+02:00

Smart/ Intelligent/ Clever crutch

2009-08-08T18:54:00.001+03:00

Finally!! At Southampton University. Congratulations! I have been waiting for ten years for it.

A crutch, three accelerometers from Nintendo Wii that detect movement, force sensors for weight measurements, potentiometer for grip, wireless transmitter, and two AAA batteries.

via here and here

No limit to brain plasticity

2009-07-24T21:58:00.001+03:00

The right hemisphere of the girl’s brain stopped developing early in the womb and the developing optic nerves reached the optic chiasma, the nerve was drawn to the left.

Scientists have discovered how a 10-year-old girl born with half a brain is able to see normally through one eye. The youngster, from Germany, has both fields of vision in one eye and is the only known case of its kind in the world.

University of Glasgow researchers used Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to reveal how the girl’s brain had rewired itself in order to process information from the right and left visual fields in spite of her not having a whole brain. The right hemisphere in the girl’s brain failed to develop in the womb.

Normally, the left and right fields of vision are processed and mapped by opposite sides of the brain, but scans on the German girl showed that retinal nerve fibres that should go to the right hemisphere of the brain diverted to the left.

Further, the researchers found that within the visual cortex of the left hemisphere, which creates an internal map of the right field of vision, ‘islands’ had been formed within it to specifically deal with, and map out, the left visual field in the absence of the right hemisphere.

Dr Lars Muckli of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in the Department of Psychology, who led the study, said: “This study has revealed the surprising flexibility of the brain when it comes to self-organising mechanisms for forming visual maps.

“The brain has amazing plasticity but we were quite astonished to see just how well the single hemisphere of the brain in this girl has adapted to compensate for the missing half.

"Despite lacking one hemisphere, the girl has normal psychological function and is perfectly capable of living a normal and fulfilling life. She is witty, charming and intelligent."

The girl’s underdeveloped brain was discovered when, aged three, she underwent an MRI scan after suffering seizures of brief involuntary twitching on her left side.

Apart from the seizures, which were successfully treated and slight weakness on her left side (hemiparesis), the girl had a normal developmental and medical history, attending regular school and taking part in activities such as roller-skating.

In other cases, where patients have half of the brain removed (hemispherectomy), to treat severe epilepsy for example, one field of vision is lost in both eyes – i.e. they see only objects on the left or right side of their vision. In the case of the German girl, her left and right field vision is almost perfect in one eye.

Visual information is gathered by the retina at the back of the eye and images are inverted when they pass through the lens of the pupil so that images in your left field of vision are received on the right side of the retina, and images from the right are received on the left. The part of the retina closest to your nose is called the nasal retina, while the other half is called the temporal retina, as it is next to the temples of the head, and both halves have separate nerve fibres which transmit the information received.

Normally, the nerve fibres from the nasal retina cross over in a part of the brain called the optic chiasma and are processed by the hemisphere on the opposite side. The nerve fibres from the temporal retina remain in the same hemisphere, so this means that the left and right visual fields at processed by opposite sides of the brain.

However, in this case, the nasal retinal nerve had connected to the left brain hemisphere.

The scientists believe the right hemisphere of the girl’s brain stopped developing early in the womb and that when the developing optic nerves reached the optic chiasma, the chemical cues that would normally guide the left eye nasal retinal nerve to the right hemisphere were no longer present and so the nerve was drawn to the left.

This implies that there are no molecular repressors to prevent nasal retinal nerve fibres from entering the same hemisphere.

Dr Muckli added: “If we could understand the powerful algorithms the brain uses to rewire itself and extract those algorithms together with the general algorithms that the brain uses to process information, they could be applied to computers and could result in a huge advance in artificial intelligence.”

The study, which was begun by Dr Muckli at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany and involved colleagues at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Goethe-University, Frankfurt-am-Main, is published in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA’.

TBI: designed for young children

2009-02-03T16:34:00.002+02:00

engraving

A year ago a post about traumatic brain injury TBI statistics in children was published. Occasionally, yesterday I saw pictures from The Book of Accidents: designed for young children. It was published in 1831. This masterpiece is illustrated by numerous possibilities to be killed of severely injured. I believe that little readers were impressed for the entire life. As far as most of the engravings demonstrate other 'young children' causing traumas to their friends on purpose, some readers could definitely use the knowledge acquired from the book for causing accidents and not for avoiding them.

Many illustrations are related to TBI, following disability, motor disorders, and, possibly, rehabilitation.

Tricycle for disabled children

2008-10-15T23:58:00.001+02:00

The need of a tricycle for disabled children that are able to cycle is permanent. Several commercially available models are not comfortable, awkward, and non-ergonomic. The devise is to be safe, easy to climb and to get off, ergonomic, and designed for children.

Shabtai Hirshberg from School of Practical Engineering at Hadassah College Jerusalem designed this trike to encourage physical activity among kids suffering from neurological or muscular disorders. It is named A2B. When a child mounts the trike, stepping on the pedal locks the wheels, enabling the child to literally walk right into a seated position. The chest support keeps the child stabilized, and the whole trike can be customized to each child's needs.The gear based rear wheel makes it easy for the child to pedal since less force is required to drive the system. The entire steering shaft is cable driven so very small movements translate into larger ones.

Now, I hope that Israel, known for its fast commercial implementation and economic stability (I mean the last weeks) will provide entrepreneurs for mass production of the A2B.

Strength® Shoe

2008-08-30T15:21:00.003+03:00

Science and technology do not stand still. To a broad collection, that included also SoM-ToUR, we can add Strength® Shoe (on the picture).
As far as I can understand the explanations, the summary of the idea is to train while stepping on calves only. ~~Like ladies do, when walk on high heels.~~ Like ladies do, when their high heels are broken.
Reasonable explanations why it is good and a list of about a hundred of sportsmen and tens of commands that train wearing Strength® Shoe may be found on the company site.
Releasing my imagination, I could suppose that high heels of my wife would "increase her anaerobic capacity and your anaerobic power by 500%" (update: in case they will be broken). The second though was much wiser: 'She has several pairs of high heels, each for less than "$129.95 only!"!'

Euro 2008

2008-06-21T21:46:00.004+03:00

People with disabilities take centre stage at the UEFA EURO 2008™ quarter-finals to demonstrate their sporting skills under the slogan "Football for All".

Programme
Matches involving Disability Teams
19 June (Basel): Visually impaired / blind players – Spain v England
20 June (Vienna): Players with learning disabilities – (Special Olympics SO) SO Austria v ÖBSV Austria
21 June (Basel): Players with physical disabilities (Paralympics) – Switzerland v Germany
22 June (Vienna): Players with cerebral palsy – Ireland v Netherlands

The picture below via drugoi are from to-day's game in Basel.

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

© Reuters/Scanpix

Aquatic therapy - indications, techniques, reasons.

2008-06-20T13:12:00.004+03:00

Aquatic therapy or pool therapy consists of an exercise program that is performed in the water. That is for several reasons:

Water provides buoyancy and support for the body. When you are neck-deep in water, you only have to support 10% of your actual body weight.
In the pool, injured people can exercise with a greater range of motion without hurting joints or re-injuring themselves.
The workout gets blood moving faster through the injured area, so it heals faster.
Water pressure helps keep down the swelling that often accompanies injury.
Aquatic therapy use the resistance of water instead of weights and improves fitness.

Indications for aquatic therapy are plenty:

Sensory Disorders
Limited Range of Motion
Weakness
Poor Motor Coordination
Pain
Spasticity
Perceptual/Spatial Problems
Balance Deficits
Respiratory Problems
Circulatory Problems
Depression/Poor Self-Esteem
Cardiac Diseases
Joint Replacement
Motor Learning
Orthopedic Injuries / Trauma
Obesity
Prenatal
Neurological (MS)
Osteoporosis
Rheumatology (Arthritis / Fibromyalgia)

And techniques are numerous:

Ai Chi
Ai Chi Ne
BackHab
Bad Ragaz
The Burdenko Method
Feldenkrais
Halliwick
Lyu Ki Dou
Massage
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)
Water Pilates
Unpredictable Command Technique (UCT)
Wassertanzen
Water Yoga
Watsu
Yogalates

I remembered all this just because saw very beautiful pictures of an underwater treadmill for these perposes (along this post). Called HYDRO PHYSIO™ /you can find the Internet site by yourself if you are curious enough/.

I wonder what kind of flood one gets opening the door like on the last photo. Sure, the developers and testers have a lot to tell about it.

Lack of statistics in the Middle East

2008-06-06T13:23:00.003+03:00

On the last, 4th EEMCPDM conference that took place recently in Eilat (Israel) Dr. Goldstein mentioned the lack of statistical data on the CP and disability incidence in the Middle Eastern countries.
From my experience I can only confirm this. To my knowledge, the only country that its statistics and epidemiology is known, published in English and always available from the professionals is Israel.
Palestinian Authority published, also in the Internet, its comprehensive statistical report. As far as it is in Arab and I do not read in Arab I can not evaluate what is written there.
Only one peer-reviewed publication may be found in English about disabilities in Jordan.
My recent efforts to find some numbers on the situation in Egypt and Morroco were totally unsuccessful.
Once, my colleague from Jordan told that trying to found out the numbers and its yearly dynamics we found very interesting facts. Once, CP incidence was very-very low in Jordan. The children with CP just not survived. Then, several years ago the numbers increased to un-normally high (comparing to the European). The reason was some dissemination of the CP topic among MDs and PTs and massive mis-diagnosis.
If you need to make any calculations for these countries in order to conduct a clinical trial or market survey, or humanitarian action, you have no other way, but to base your calculations on the US or European statistics. On the other hand there is a wide field of challenges for epidemiological studies.

Who invented physiotherapy? /at least, fitness trainers/

2008-06-01T15:26:00.003+03:00

Dr. Gustav Zander -
Jonas Gustav Wilhelm Zander (1835–1920) was a Swedish physician who invented a therapeutic method of exercise carried out by means of special apparatus such as that seen here. Zander began his work in the 1860s and established the Zander Institute in London, where he published Mechanical Exercise: A Means of Cure (1883) before coming to New York. His hope was that his equipment, which employed gradual muscle resistance, would supplement normal gymnasiums that excluded women, older people, and "weakly" people of either sex.

From here

Walking on books

2008-06-01T15:07:00.003+03:00

As far as SoM's approach means walking on changing surfaces that can not be predicted, the idea of Hungarian artists may also be useful. © AP/Scanpix

The level of difficulty may be increased from lullabies with pictures through fantasy to enciclopedias.

Walking In My Shoes...

2008-03-07T09:36:00.005+02:00

A shoe may be a perfect a container for different mechanisms. A shoe may be a mechanism by itself. Or a mechanism may serve as a shoe.

Starting with a simple air pump.

About combination of iPod and Nike most people heard.

And if we mention MP3 shoes, meet Dada.

And if we mentioned Nike, let's mention their competitors - Adidas footings that have a computer chip and a tiny motor built into its sole and continually adjust itself to a runner's size, pace, terrain and even fatigue level. See details here.

And if we talk about Adidas, it runs a mutual project with Polar to develop a system that includes advanced heart rate monitoring built directly into the apparel, along with speed and distance measurement integrated into the shoes.

The Responsive Environments Group from MIT has some incredible developments. Here are two of them.

Wireless Wearable System for Gait Evaluation.

Power station in a shoe.

One can also convert the energy of his mass lifting during walking by inflating a stool to rest after exercise.

Georgia Tech scientists produced a super-duper nanogenerator that they plan to incorporate in shoes too.

Another interesting device restricts TV watching time by walking time. More your kid walks (runs, play outside), more TV he gets.

GPS in the sole is not a new idea, but specialized GPS Alarm Shoes for Sex Workers are also available.
Shoes that have adjustable heel height have different solutions. This, for example, may be up to 38°.

Heels may be interchangeable.

Electric Cinderella shoe is aimed for self defense.
Tap-n-bass is a pair of wired-up tap shoes are picked-up by piezo contact microphones and remixed live, resulting in drum-n-bass-inspired music.

A kids' toy for some boubtful walking communication.

Just for $50 you can have flip flops with a hidden pocket. I suppose, it is worthy if you carry more than $50 to a beach.

ArchPort shoes are designed similarly. And cost similarly.

And more cool things that are not in this post. For example, SoM-TOUR sandal.

TBI statistics in children

2008-02-05T12:24:00.001+02:00

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), also called acquired brain injury or simply head injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.

The term TBI is used for head injuries that can cause changes in one or more areas, such as:
- thinking and reasoning,
- understanding words,
- remembering things,
- paying attention,
- solving problems,
- thinking abstractly,
- talking,
- behaving,
- walking and other physical activities,
- seeing and/or hearing, and

- learning.

The term TBI is not used for a person who is born with a brain injury. It also is not used for brain injuries that happen during birth.

More than one million children receive brain injuries each year in the USA (almost half of all TBIs). More than 30,000 of these children have lifelong disabilities as a result of the brain injury.

Among children ages 0 to 14 years, TBI results in an estimated
- 2,685 deaths;
- 37,000 hospitalizations; and
- 435,000 emergency department visits.

These count only cases seen in an emergency department, but not with light damage.

Individuals age 15 to 24 have the highest risk of TBI.
Falls are the leading cause of TBI; rates are highest for children ages 0 to 4 years.
The rate of motor vehicle-traffic-related TBI is highest among adolescents ages 15 to 19 years.

Child abuse is the cause of 64% of all infant head injuries
Approximately 1 in 500 school-age children each year receive a head injury severe enough to be hospitalized
1 million children sustain a head injury each year
165,000 children will be hospitalized due to a head injury
1 in 10 of those children hospitalized will suffer moderate to severe impairments

Source: Langlois JA, Rutland-Brown W, Thomas KE. Traumatic brain injury in the United States: emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nation Center for Injury Prevention and Control; 2006.

Kraus, J. F, and MacArthur, D. L. (1996) Epidemiologic Aspects of Brain Injury. Neurologic Clinics, 14(2): 435-450.

Not iPhone but BrainScope NT-1000

2008-02-02T20:38:00.000+02:00

Very few claim that they know how to treat. Meanwhile, dozens say that know to diagnose. BrainScope is one of them. Their BrainScope NT-1000 (under development) is to diagnose traumatic brain injuries (TBI). It uses quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) that was popular in the 1930's, but not to-day. Nevertheless, BrainScopes says, that they develop other devices for detecting and diagnostics of (take a deep breath):

- stroke

- Alzheimer’s

- dementia

- depression

- seizure

- ADD

- autism and related conditions

- encephalopathy

- drug overdose

... and etc.

I do not know whether it really works, but want to try it and I have tens of ideas where to use. Firstly, of cause, to detect the effect of our method!

Museum pictures

2008-02-01T10:16:00.000+02:00

The National Museum of Public Health has been uploading hundreds of incredible photos from its archives onto Flickr. Here below are some of them that I found to be of interest.

Improvised physical therapy equipment from 37th General Hospital -- Bagnoli. ~World War 2. 37th General Hospital.

World War 2 era.

Korean battle amputees learn to walk again with artificial limbs at the 3rd ROKA Annex Hospital, Pusan, Korea. Photo by Cpl. Alex Pobudinsky. 01/23/1952.

Prosthetic arm, at Walter Reed Hospital, possibly ca. 1950.

via Boingboing

Disabled dancers

2008-01-31T23:29:00.000+02:00

The video of Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei dancing is pretty popular. That is why I decided to put out here to more videos od disabled dancing. Both amaizing.

1. BBoy from Canada

2. Mahesh from India

I have a very beautiful dance of another amputee somewhere on media, that I will upload as soon as I will find it.

"Red freaks" or "A hamlet against dementia"

2008-01-31T00:29:00.000+02:00

Neuroprotection is a very 'glamour' word nowadays. Hundreds of compounds have being tested for their neuroprotective ability. Most of them found to be effective [in animals], only few reach Phase II clinical studies, less then ten got FDA and are on market.

My experience with red light neuroprotection is in retinal lesions, caused by laser. In rats. The experience was negative, i.e. no positive effect was found. This idea was based on the positive experience of similar testing on the model of methanol toxicity in rodent eyes.

The news are that Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham, invented/created/developed a hamlet that stimulates your brain with infra-red light in order to treat dementia, Alzheimer's disease, to help improve cognition. Dr Dougal suppose that ten minutes of daily exposure (hamlet wear) will be enough. I am not sure, but probably, he is afraid that longer exposure may cause overheating and boiling of one's brains. Anyway, it is not connected to motor rehabilitation now, but may be connected in the summer 2008, if the planned clinical studies will be successful.

Also the success of clinical studies will mean that staying outside in the sunny day for 10 minutes daily with your head uncovered may prevent you of being 'old idiot' when you will become 'old and wise' instead.

Culture of balance

2008-01-18T09:14:00.000+02:00

The previous post raised another question: can balance and postural natural training depend on culture differences? Of course, the environmental and habituation factors are important, but maybe, the neuronal organization is involved too?

Do stroke survivors in Alabama and in China walk different?

2008-01-15T19:39:00.001+02:00

Brain activity in East Asians and Americans is different as they make relative and absolute judgments. The brain regions involved in attention that are engaged by more demanding tasks are different.
Thinking on pathology may lead to tremendous speculations. The first question should ask whether the brain activity at common tasks is different in different cultures.

Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei

2008-01-15T12:07:00.000+02:00

This video is extremely famous and popular in the net. Nevertheless, it must appear here again. At least, in order to remind about it and the performers - Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei.

Upd.: More disabled dancing

Off-road wheelchair

2008-01-10T19:53:00.000+02:00

Tank Chair is a custom off-road wheelchair that can go anywhere outdoors. Conquers Streams, Mud, Snow, Sand, and Gravel, allowing you to get back to nature, and can also climb up and down stairs. Even the urban street and stairs, with a incline accent of up to 45 degrees.

Prevent TBI

2008-01-08T14:03:00.000+02:00

Prevent TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) - put a helmet on! And you fill the helmet with sensors prior you put it on you can which TBIs it prevented, when, and how. (If it did not prevent TBI, be sure it was the last recorded)

The US Army model (let's call it 'Pro Edition') can record 527 events ranging from being dropped on the ground to being blasted by a bomb. The sensor weighs 6 ounces, runs on a battery that can last six months and fits on the back of the helmet (see the video here).

The football model ('Home Edition'?) is equipped with sensors that measure the magnitude, location, and direction of blows to a player's head. The single number that I found about it is the price - US$999. Put it on if you value your head, or do not play football.

StepPer

2008-01-06T14:15:00.000+02:00

Like a walkman

2008-01-06T14:02:00.000+02:00

The purpose of biofeedback systems for postural control is to provide additional sensory information about body equilibrium to the brain. Marco Dozza from Bolonia University has been developing such a system for several recent years. The balance feedback device acts much like a carpenter's level in alerting the subject to how much they are leaning outside of a predetermined central "safe-zone." The device is connected to a pair of headphones and hooked to the subject's belt. When activated, subjects receive audio cues to let them know how their body is balancing.
It is such a wide field for such applications - for walking, training, dancing.

Wheelchair fashion

2008-01-04T12:46:00.000+02:00

Today I learned about the subject. Wheelchair clothes exist. The examples are here and here.
It is designed in order to :
- help clothing slip on and off from a seated or prone position;
- assist those with arthritis and/or limited dexterity to be easily manipulated and adjusted to suit their needs;
- loose fitting adaptive designs allow for freedom of movement and ease of dressing. Pant designs are generous to allow for extra room for sanitary requirements;
- to provide modesty and yet afford easy transfers;
- to ensure dignity while standing or transferring;
- to withstand the rigors.

EEG Game Controller

2008-01-03T22:31:00.000+02:00

Neurosky, a maker of lightweight EEG devices, is working with Sega to create mind-controlled video games. At the time of the announcement the companies did not provide any hints at what the gameplay will feel like.

Via medGadget

Where on the pyramid of performance?

2008-01-01T22:07:00.000+02:00

Source for thoughts -

From here.

To Dr. Blum or not to Dr. Blum

2007-12-31T10:37:00.000+02:00

Also from Russia.
Google told me - "Cerebral Palsy is curable". We know that it is. It can be cured, all is the matter of achieved success. But in Russian it sounds as if a CP child will become 'normally developed'.
The site is dedicated to Dr. Blum and his unique method of CP treatment. Dr. Blum works in Moscow in the Research Institute of Clinical Rehabilitation. He is also a PhD, professor, and head of Clinical Rehabilitation Department of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia . /On the English version of the University site the doctor's name is spelled like 'Yevgeniy E.Blyum'/.
Dr. Blum explains that all his developments are self-sponsored, that needs IP protection, meaning they are not published. Indeed, Pubmed has no one publication by Blum or Blyum. A search in Russian revealed no scientific publications, but a patent registered in Russia in 2001 and expired in 2007 on some improvement of premature-born's stay in an incubator. Then I searched among the US patents with no success.
Price of 1 month of treatment quoted on the Dr. Blum's site is 6,000 Euro. In Russian blogs I found that a 12-month course of CP treatment in the Blum's clinic costs 3000000 rubles (about 100,000 $US).
The treatment has three stages. The first stage includes the wash out of toxic drugs products from the body. I lost my interest at this point.

Physiotherapy with skies

2007-12-30T18:01:00.001+02:00

Here I saw for the first time the advise of using skies for physiotherapy exercising.

The walking with skies makes the patient to flex his knees in order to rise a leg higher, but, more important to activate all the ankle movements to avoid the over-crossing of the skies. The exercises may be performed while hording the parallel bars.
The skies are 50-70 cm long and fixated firmly along all the sole to a shoe.
Also weights may be added. I think the weights may be moved along skies or may be located asymmetrically.

Exercise device

2007-12-29T19:59:00.000+02:00

This "Exercise Device" was patented in the USA by Ovid P. Mikell, Jr., from Miami, FL in 1946. The possibility of its usage for rehabilitation was also mentioned in the patent.
A thing like this can be found in almost every sports shop for $10 and more. The use of such device can not be overestimated.

Al-Hussein Society in Amman

2007-12-29T11:47:00.000+02:00

In the frame of the MERC project we collaborate with the Al-Hussein Society for the Habilitation/Rehabilitation of the Physically Challenged. Princess Majda Ra’ad is the Chairperson of the Society and actively takes part in supervision of its manajement. The society was founded in 1972 and now its permanent stuff is about 90 people.
Here are my pictures from there:

By the way, lated I saw on the Net, that those wheelchairs were donated by Japanese government in 1999.

Locomotion

2007-12-28T10:45:00.000+02:00

We should know what we are talking about. We are talking about function and the important function for this blog is locomotion, meaning the one's possibility to move himself from one place to another. Walking is the way of locomotion of the particular interest in rehabilitation, though there are other types of human locomotion: running, crawling, climbing, swimming, and even, may be, flying.

Clinic - a pub in Singapore

2007-12-26T21:36:00.000+02:00

The Clinic

Music, Rhythm and Motor Rehabilitation

2007-12-25T23:49:00.000+02:00

From here:

When an individual needs to improve physical strength and flexibility, specific movements are encouraged through exercise. The music therapist uses musical instruments that require specific movements in order to meet these exercise needs.

Can we play with variable rhythms for unexpected change of external environment? Similarly, various frazes, like refrens, or loudness may be used for functional motor learning.