ONZOFF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE MOTION OF RAISING TO UPRIGHT POSITION AND SITTING BASED ON ELECTRICAL FUNCTIONAL STIMULATION APPLICABLE TO PATIENTS WITH NEUROMOTOR IMPAIRMENT

摘要

The invention relates to a method for controlling the motion of raising to upright position and sitting applicable to patients with neuromotor impairment caused by lesions of the central nervous system. According to the invention, the method involves the control of the transfer motions by presetting the parameters of an electrical stimulation applied to hamstring (), quadriceps (), and gluteal () muscles by a programmable neurostimulator () on the basis of the information delivered by two knee cuffs (), the electrical stimulation being applied in the proximity of the above-mentioned muscles by means of some pairs of surface or implanted electrodes (), the modulation of the contraction intensity of these muscles () of each lower limb being carried out by relating the actual point of a trajectory () within the space of the statuses defined by the knee angle and knee angular velocity to three subspaces ON, ZONE, OFF delimited by an ideal sitting/standing-up curve (), a curve () for delimiting the area for modulating the muscle contraction intensity, a straight line () for presetting the moment for getting out of/into hyperextension and a straight line () which delimitates the vertical subspace where the subject is deemed to be in sitting position and, in case of a controlled sitting, the contraction intensity of quadriceps muscles () is maximal in the space ON, it linearly decreases from the area ON to the area OFF and it is zero in the area OFF, the contraction intensity of hamstrings muscles () is zero in the space ON, it linearly increases from the area OFF to the area ON, being maximal in the area OFF, and the contraction intensity of gluteal muscles () is selected to be constant, in the vertical subspace delimited to the right by the presetting straight line () there are stimulated only the hamstring muscles () for the knee getting out of hyperextension and in the vertical space delimited to the left by the straight line () the muscles will no longer be stimulated, the subject being deemed to be in sitting position.