Intelligent Crutches Systems for Orthopedic Rehabilitation

• Partial Weight Bearing
• Gait Training

"In accident surgery and orthopaedics, practitioners at conservative and operative therapy often face the fact that the patient is not allowed or cannot put his/her complete weight onto the affected lower extremity. It has to be put into comfort to ensure a satisfactory healing. The patient must walk with medical crutches under physiotherapy with high effort to learn a walk with correct partial weight bearing."

... says Priv. Doz. Dr. Heimo Clar, orthopaedic surgeon at the university hospital in Graz, Austria.

Partial weight bearing is often recommended after orthopaedic surgery such as:

• Fracture
• Chondrocyte transplantation
• Cruciate ligament replacement
• Meniscus suture

Biofeedback system for controlled partial weight bearing
and gait training

PierenStep is an innovative system to controll the realized partial weight of the patient. Partial weight is indicated in many cases after ortopaedic injury or surjery in order to protect the limb but still to activate the recovery by walking with a part of the patient's body weight only.

schwa-medico is pleased to present its newest development in the field of orthopedic rehabilitation.

PierenStep is a new rehabilitation system for:

• The training of an optimal gait pattern and 3-point gait
• The measurement of the load on the injured limb 

Feedback System

The electronic crutch PierenStep include a feedback system which warns the patient when he/she is applying more weight on the injured leg than allowed. After orthopaedic surgery the surgeon decides about the partial load the patient is allowed to apply on his leg immediately after the surgery. The partial load will be increased with the time during the rehabilitation.

First the intelligent crutches PierenStep need to be set up with the patient's personal data such as his body weight and the maximum partial load to be applied on his limb.

3 Modes are available to work with the intelligent crutches PierenStep:

1. Live Mode: Gait Training
   The patient is learning to walk a 3-point gait with the intelligent crutches PierenStep while the therapist (physician, physiotherapist) is giving him advises regarding the gait pattern and the weight to apply on his bad leg. Each step realized by the patient is show on the software to give all the information to the therapist.  These information can be stored in excel sheet for documentation and/or comparison to other training sessions. Further the intelligent crutches Pierenstep are giving an acoustic and vibration signal to the patient to warn him/her when he is applying the wrong weight on his leg. This way the next step can be corrected immediately.
2. Offline Mode: Feedback System
   After the gait training session the patient can take the crutches to his hospital room, to the rehabilation center or home. The intelligent crutches are programmed for his/her weight and for the weight bearing he/she is allowed to apply. The crutches are giving him/her acoustic and vibration feedback as soon as he/she has exeeded the allowed weight. This way he/she has a continuous feedback which allow him/her to pay attention to his weight bearing.
3. Controll Mode: Retrieving the Saved Steps / Memory Function
   The intelligent crutches are equiped with a memory which is saving all steps of the patient. When the patient is coming back to hospital or to the clinic, the therapist has the possibilty to retrieve the steps from the crutch back to the software. Information on the number of steps as well as statistic on the partial weight behavior of the patient are available and can be exported in an excel sheet. Documentation might be important for medical or scientific reason.

The intelligent crutch System PierenStep is made of 3 components:

• A pair of intelligent crutches and 2 battery charger
• A radio transmitter stick for the connection to the computer
• A software to programm the crutches, proceed the live training and retrieve the saved data out of the crutches

An Informative Product Film On The PIERENSTEP Crutches Training System

The video film demonstrates to physicians and therapists the functionality and options provided by the PIERENSTEP System in cases involving partial weight-bearing therapy activities. By covering all the key aspects of the PIERENSTEP System, the film provides a comprehensive overview of the product - not only for the benefit of physicians and therapists - but also for the patients; from first time starting, the configuration of the crutches with the PIERENSTEP Software and live gait training practices. In addition, the film includes important information regarding the various data readout options, force/time curves analysis, examples of applications in the rehabilitation phase and crutch battery re-charging procedures.

If you require further information please do get in touch with us.