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Massimiliano Gobbo [1; 2] and Paolo Gaffurini [3] and Laura Vacchi [2] and Sara Lazzarini [2] and Jorge Villafane [4] and Claudio Orizio [1] and Stefano Negrini [1; 4] and Luciano Bissolotti [5]

Academic Editor: Vida Demarin

1, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy, unibs.it

2, Laboratory of Clinical Integrative Physiology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy, unibs.it

3, Laboratory of Neuromuscular Rehabilitation, Teresa Camplani Foundation, Brescia, Italy, fondazioneteresacamplani.it

4, IRCCS Don Gnocchi Foundation, Milan, Italy, dongnocchi.it

5, Functional Rehabilitation Service, Teresa Camplani Foundation, Brescia, Italy, fondazioneteresacamplani.it

Received Feb 21, 2017; Accepted Jul 17, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Stroke represents the most common cause for adult upper limb (UL) motor impairments [1], leading for almost the 80% of hand motor function disorders as a consequence of hemiplegia [2–4]. Motor recovery is frequently poor or insufficient, with only one-third of stroke patients regaining dexterity within the first six months [5]. Less than 45% of stroke patients are likely to achieve complete functional recovery, while the majority of this population will reveal a variable degree of residual impairment and inability to accomplish daily life activities [6–9]. Beside motor control and sensory deficits, stroke survivors present common complications such as pain, spasticity, joint constraint, and skin or vascular damage, which represent paramount challenges in stroke management [10, 11].

To counteract these problems and to help in restoring/improving upper and lower limb function, a wide range of technically advanced devices designed to assist physical rehabilitation are increasingly at disposal for therapists. The robot-assisted therapy is one of the most innovative and promising approaches intended to recover function after stroke [12–15]. Robotic devices assist patients in performing repetitive tasks (active or passive exercises), addressing several poststroke rehabilitation purposes (e.g., functional training; joint flexibility maintenance and joint stiffness reduction; prevention of muscle/tendon shortening with related deformities, pain, and alterations in muscle-tendon unit mechanics; enhancement of somatosensory and proprioceptive input; reduction of edema, deep venous thrombosis, decubitus ulcers, and pain by promoting circulation) [11, 16–19].

Against this background, the assessment of the specific biological effects and mechanisms of currently...

   

 
     
     
     
     

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