The application value of lower limb exoskeleton robots in postoperative rehabilitation following minimally invasive surgery for cervical spondylotic myelopathy
LOU Fengtong
WANG Haijun
CAO Rui
ZHAO Guo-tong
DING Yu
Abstract：Objective To explore the clinical efficacy of applying exoskeleton robots in lower limb functional rehabilitation for patients after minimally invasive surgery for cervical spondylotic myelopathy(CSM).Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 56 patients who underwent spinal endoscopic minimally invasive surgery between April 2021 and October 2022.Based on the rehabilitation methods,patients were divided into the observation group(robot-assisted rehabilitation group)and the control group(conventional rehabilitation group).The Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA)scores for cervical spinal cord function,lower limb somatosensory evoked potential amplitudes,and gait analysis indicators(step frequency,walking speed,and stance phase ratio)were assessed preoperatively,4 weeks postoperatively,and 8 weeks postoperatively.Results In 4 and 8 weeks after surgery,both groups showed significant improvements in JOA scores,lower-limb somatosensory evoked potential amplitudes,and gait parameters(step frequency,walking speed,and stance phase ratio)com-pared with preoperative data(P<0.05).Furthermore,the improvements in JOA scores,somatosensory evoked potential amplitudes,and gait parameters in the observation group were significantly greater than those in the control group at both 4 and 8 weeks postoperatively(P<0.05).However,at the 2-year follow-up,there were no statistically significant differences(P>0.05)between the two groups in any of these measures.Conclusions Rehabilitation using lower limb exoskeleton robots can accelerate spinal cord function recovery and improve lower limb walking ability in patients after minimally invasive surgery for CSM,demonstrating superior short-term clinical efficacy com-pared to conventional rehabilitation.However,no significant differences were observed between the two methods during long-term follow-up.
Keywords：cervical spondylotic myelopathyminimally invasive surgerylower limb exoskeleton ro-botfunctional rehabilitation
Publication Date：2025-05-25
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 1548-1554 )