On Monday 23 June at 11:00, Susanne Lillelund Sørensen defends her PhD dissertation entitled "Robotic-assisted intervention (ROBERT®) to enhance muscle strength in the hip flexor muscles following spinal cord injury".

The optimal training paradigm to increase strength in partially paralysed muscles following spinal cord injury (SCI) is unclear. This current PhD project is explorative. It investigates whether a robotic-assisted intervention is feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective to increase strength in hip flexor muscles with very weak neurological function following SCI .

The PhD project comprises four sub-studies. These include a feasibility study adressing uncertainties regarding a robot-assisted strength training intervention, a study to develop and clinically validate an outcome measure to classify and count number of hip flexion repetitions, a pilot test to investigate whether the intervention could potentially increase hip flexor muscle strength, and a qualitative study to explore the gains, barriers and motivation related to robotic-assisted intervention(s) from both the participants’ and physiotherapists’ perspectives.

The main finding of the project show no significant effect of an strength training intervention administered with a robotic device for people with SCI and marked neurological weakness. Both patients and physiotherapists recognise the potential of robotic technologies, however, a dualism between the benefits and the fact that robotic technologies are very resource-demanding is highlighted.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place at The Spinal Cord Injury Centre of Western Denmark, Meetroom 1 and 2, Søndersøparken 11, Viborg. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Susanne Lillelund Sørensen
Mail: susanne.lillelund@rm.dk
Phone: (+45) 60614149

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