The Rutgers Arm: An Upper-Extremity Rehabilitation System in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Its prevalence calls for innovative rehabilitation methods for post-stroke patients. The Rutgers Arm is a novel arm rehabilitation system consisting of a special table, 3D tracker, custom forearm support, PC workstation, library of Java 3D VR exercises, clinical database module, and a tele-rehabilitation extension. The Rutgers Arm was tested on a chronic stroke subject, under local and tele-rehabilitation conditions, over five weeks of training. Case study results show improvements in arm motor control, shoulder range of motion, and (as illustrated by improvements in computerized measures and in Fugl-Meyer test scores). The tele-rehabilitation portion of training showed that exercise duration, level of difficulty and patient motivation, were maintained. A one-week-retention trial showed that most of the gains were maintained (or improved on) by the subject