The technology company KinisiForo was founded in 2011. The company specializes in developing advanced technologies and methods for the rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal diseases arising from neurological disorders such as a stroke, cerebral palsy and spinal injuries.
The main goal of the company, is to apply the latest knowledge in the field of neurological rehabilitation in order to significantly improve patients quality of life, which is considered to be the forefront in this field.
The rehabilitation method developed by the company is called the K-SET method and is based on the use of an advanced rehabilitation robot. This method will be discussed in this article.
Most methods of neurological rehabilitation are not able to make significant changes in the quality of a patients’ life and they experience only minor improvements.
This is due to the fact that most of the existing methods were developed at a time when little was known about the plastic capabilities of the human brain and its impressive level of flexibility, which continues to exist at later stages of human life.
Over the past decade, a large amount of knowledge has accumulated due to numerous studies of patients suffering from various neurological disorders and injured spinal cord. As a result of the studies that are ongoing to this day, we learned that under the right conditions, the brain can gain amazing flexibility.
The amazing flexibility of the human brain
nglishis the ability of the brain and nervous system to change structurally and functionally in response to external stimulation.
Flexibility is manifested at the cellular level, but the changes occurring there ultimately affect higher levels and even cortical mapping.
The flexibility of the brain is present in all of us. It is in this way that we retain many memories and are able to remember various things.
The flexibility of the brain also allows us to recover from various neurological injuries and disorders.
For most of the 20th century, it was widely believed among scientists and neurologists that brain structures are fixed in their final form with the onset of growing up and are not susceptible to change. It was assumed that only age-related changes at an older age are possible, such as loss of interneuronal connections and a deterioration in brain functionality.
As we mentioned earlier, neurologists understand that this was an erroneous idea of the brain and that the brain itself can radically change even in the adult stage of human life.
For example, recent studies in mice have shown that negative changes associated with the natural aging process, such as loss of skills or decreased severity of thought, are not at all one-sided. This means that with proper education and training, the brain can be restored and a person regains lost abilities.
How does the K-SET method utilize brain flexibility?
The K-SET method is based on the understanding that certain actions can be used by the flexibility of the brain to restore lost functions.
The rehabilitation robot developed by KinisiForo allows us to control all the parameters necessary for the development of new motor capabilities and restoration of lost functions, such as:
• The repetition of the movements that we want the brain to remember must be exactly repeated from time to time
• Absolute control over the speed at which various movements are performed
• Absolute control over the angles of the joints involved in the movement
• Absolute control over the intensity of patient movements
• Absolute control of the load of the muscular and skeletal system during movement
• Protection against injury and mechanical vibrations when performing movements
• Distracting the patient to automatically perform various movements using visual stimuli (virtual reality): reducing patient awareness of movements during exercise, promotes automatic activity and helps to naturally integrate movements into the nervous system
In other words, we can say that with the help of a rehabilitation robot, the patient’s brain is forced to establish new connections between brain cells that are necessary to perform various actions, with a focus on the ability to move.
Is K-SET method superior to traditional rehabilitation?
In recent years, a number of studies have been carried out on the capabilities of the KinisiForo Rehabilitation Robot, and so far the results have raised great hopes both among specialists and patients.
For example, in a study conducted in 2019, we compared the effects of rehabilitation robotic therapy with the effects of traditional methods of recovery from a stroke. The study was conducted at the Palanga Rehabilitation Hospital in Lithuania and involved 12 patients who were divided into two groups. The first group was treated with a rehabilitation robot, and the second group with traditional neurological rehabilitation methods. The study lasted three weeks and improvement was measured by various indicators, such as stability, muscle strength, ability to move and much more.
The results of the study were convincing: in the group taking the K-SET method using a rehabilitation robot, there was a significant improvement in all indicators compared to the second group. Among other things, the step length increased by an average of 38 cm (compared with an improvement of only 18 cm in the second group) and the walking speed of the participants in the first group doubled in just three weeks.
Who needs the K-SET method and what are the results of treatment?
The K-SET method is suitable for a wide range of patients with neurological problems, including patients with Parkinson’s disease, patients who have had a stroke, suffered a traumatic brain injury and have neurological abnormalities, patients with multiple sclerosis, patients with various diseases manifested by muscular dystrophy, and those undergoing orthopedic operations in need of postoperative rehabilitation, as well as many others.
A significant improvement in the patient’s condition is expected within a few weeks after the start of treatment.
Among other things, the rehabilitation robot leads to the following results:
• Improving movement, walking and coordination
• Preservation of muscle mass
• Reduction of muscle and spastic cramps
• Increased muscle stamina and muscle strength (even in situations where strength was very low at baseline)
• Training simultaneously on all four limbs and all muscles of the body
• Improving oxygen consumption
• Saving and increasing the range of motion of the joints
• Reducing pain caused by various muscle problems
• Improving resilience and coordination
In conclusion, there are two versions of the rehabilitation robot developed by the KinisiForo company. The first was developed for rehabilitation departments of hospitals and public rehabilitation clinics, while the second one is a home unit that allows patients to take full advantage of the K-SET method without leaving their home.
