Combined effects of user-driven treadmill control and functional electrical stimulation for poststroke rehabilitation

This study aims to determine the response of stroke survivors to user-driven treadmill control and functional electrical stimulation (FES) of their paretic ankle musculature. 14 stroke survivors walked at their self-selected (SS) and fast speeds on an instrumented treadmill in its fixed speed (FS) mode and user-driven (UD) mode with FES. They selected faster SS and fast speeds with the UD control and FES. They also increased their push-off forces in SS trials to walk faster on the UD with FES but used similar push-off forces for both fast trials despite choosing slower speeds for the FS trial. Walking with UD control and FES allowed users to instantaneously select faster walking speeds and fully utilize their propulsive forces.