BODY WEIGHT–SUPPORTED

TREADMILL TRAINING
 BODY WEIGHT–SUPPORTED TREADMILL TRAINING

• It is a more recently developed approach to gait

rehabilitation being utilized with increasing
frequency for patients with diminished or absent
supraspinal control.
• Although this technique was initially developed
and then used with varying degrees of success
following SCI, BWSTT has since been a
component of locomotor rehabilitation for
patients with stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI),
Parkinson’s disease, and lumbar stenosis among
other conditions.
• BWSTT employs upright walking on a motorized treadmill while the
patient wears a suspension harness to reduce ground reaction force
(or GRF) by a specified percentage.
• Typically, two therapists (and sometimes a third to facilitate upright
posture) manually position and guide each lower limb to achieve
repetitive, rhythmic stepping motions.
• To reduce therapist effort and improve the repeatability of
locomotor training, commercially available robotic devices have
been developed to increase the volume of stepping practice.
• Another proposed technologic refinement in the setting of
hemiparetic gait has been a computer-controlled, dynamic system
to precisely regulate the magnitude and timing—with respect to
gait cycle events—of body weight support provided to the user
• DeLisa'sPhysical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Principles and Practice, Two Volume