A comparison of the attitude of paraplegic individuals to the Walkabout Orthosis and the Isocentric Reciprocal Gait Orthosis

This study compared the attitude of paraplegic individuals to the Isocentric Reciprocal Gait Orthosis (IRGO) and the Walkabout Orthosis (WO), after they had been given the opportunity of using both. Ten complete T9-12 paraplegic patients participated in this randomised cross-over design, Initially the subjects learned to walk with the first orthosis before taking it home for a 14 week home trial period. The same process of training and trialing the orthosis at home was then repeated with the second orthosis. Attitudes to specific aspects of the orthoses were assessed by an 18 point questionnaire and overall attitudes were inferred after determining the amount of time that subjects used the orthoses at home and determining which orthosis the majority of subjects wanted to keep at the end of the study. The main finding was that subjects did not perceive any significant differences between the two orthoses, That is: (i) the questionnaire did not detect significant differences in attitudes to the two orthoses; (ii) there was no significant difference in the number of subjects that preferred one orthosis to the other, at the end of the study, and (iii) subjects did not derive more use from one orthosis than the other over the two 14 week home trial periods. In addition, it was found that few subjects wore either orthosis more than once every 2 weeks and that subjects were primarily using the orthoses for therapeutic purposes. This latter finding was supported by the results of the questionnaire that revealed that subjects found both orthoses to be useful for standing but not useful for performing more purposeful tasks. It was concluded that when subjects are primarily using the WO and IRGO for therapeutic purposes, they do not readily perceive differences between the two.