Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network recently became the first health-care organization in the country to utilize the Tibion Bionic Leg in the inpatient and outpatient setting.
Preliminary studies show that patients with lower limb impairments who are 5 to 10 years post-stroke benefit from the use of this robotic technology. Those patients’ walking speed, gait pattern and endurance improved in four weeks of therapy with the Tibion Bionic Leg.
“Patients using this new therapy tool will improve functional activities such as standing, walking and climbing stairs,” says Susan Golden, P.T., director of neurorehabilitation for Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network. “We have patients with gait impairment who used the Tibion Bionic Leg and then walked without assistance and without pain for the first time since having a stroke.”
Good Shepherd is using the Tibion Bionic Leg at Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown and at its outpatient neurorehabiltation program in the Good Shepherd Health & Technology Center, 850 S. Fifth Street, Allentown. Many of Good Shepherd’s therapists are specially trained in using rehabilitation technologies to help patients regain function as quickly as possible.