Therapeutic and rehabilitation apparatus

Abstract

An apparatus adapted for coupling between an attendant positioned either behind or in front of a patient on an exercise assembly such as a treadmill for rehabilitation of a functionally impaired leg of the patient such as one suffering from paralysis. The apparatus comprises a leg appliance secured to a patpatient'sg, with a leg bracket adjacent to the knee. A leg brace secured to an attendant's leg also includes a bracket adjacent to the attattendant'see. At least one connecting member provides coupling from the leg bracket to the bracket of the leg brace to transmit motion from an attendant's leg to a patient's leg using forces acting from the leg brace to the leg appliance through the connecting member. An ankle appliance having an upper extension and a lower extension proximate the ankle is attached to a patient's foot and an ankle brace is similarly attached to an attendant's foot. The ankle brace has a brace upper extension and a brace lower extension adjacent the ankle of an attendant with the brace upper extension coupled by an upper ankle link to the upper extension of the patient's ankle appliance, while the brace lower extension is coupled by a lower ankle link to the lower extension of the ankle appliance. Each of the upper link and the lower link are adapted to create movement of a patient's foot corresponding to movement of a foot of an attendant during walking. Further coupled to the ankle brace is an offset link for transferring side-to-side motions. The coordinated leg and ankle movement allows a patient's paralysis damaged leg to duplicate the walking motion of an attendant's leg.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.