All 'Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma the new frontiers of post-stroke rehabilitation

October 29 is World Stroke Day

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Rome, October 26 2017 – That the stroke continues to be scary say the numbers released byUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma (UCBM) on the occasion of the World Day against the disease of October 29: in Italy alone it affects 200 people a year. 80 percent are new cases and 20 percent relapses. About a third of survivors live with a disability and it depends on your family. There are those who do not survive: every year disease kills and 6 million individuals in the world, 650 thousand in Europe e over 70 thousand in Italy (source: ISS).

But research is making progress, offering hopes of recovery also thanks to new frontier of brain stimulation, while robot in trolley format promise soon to bring the rehabilitation outside hospitals and clinics, ever closer to the patient. An innovation that researchers at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, which will make it possible to make the recovery phase compatible with the activity of family members who assist their loved ones, given that, according to a survey ALICE. Italy Onlus, 52,6% of 'caregivers' lost their job or had to reduce their hours worked.

Rehab is approaching home

Also to respond to these needs, the robot-assisted physiotherapy moves from hospital to home or in clinics near your home. It is the fruit of research by UBCM bioengineers, led by professor Dino Accoto, And his name is Icons. It fits inside a trolley and facilitates robot-assisted rehabilitation of the upper limb. It is portable at home or in the doctor's office because it does not need to be assembled and works through a graphical interface touch, therefore very simple to use for the physiotherapist and for the patients.
Fruit of first spin-off of UCBM, ICan Robotics, the robot got the medical CE mark from the Ministry of Health for home use.
Iconsin fact it is for now the only robot that can also be used outside hospitals or rehabilitation centres, directly meets the need to activate neuro-rehabilitation services at home, promoting de-hospitalization, with the consequent benefits both on the quality of life of the patient and his/her family caregivers, and on the economic impact for the National Health Service.

But robotic technology is already at the heart of UBCM's post-stroke recovery activity. "At our University Hospital – explains the professor Silvia Sterzi, Head of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit of the Polyclinic UCBM we have rehabilitation robots for the treatment of the upper limb in each of its districts: hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder. These devices allow passive, active and active-assisted mobilisations, action observation therapy, the use of sensory feedback. We can also record each session with a report and monitor the patient over time. They are therefore both evaluative and rehabilitative robots. Finally, it is possible combine non-invasive brain stimulation with robot treatment". And the progress that the graphs drawn by the robots show is amazing.

Vagus nerve stimulation and electroceuticals: two new hopes from researchUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

Among the new frontiers of post-stroke recovery are the experiments of the researchers of theUCBM based on Electroceutics, with numerous applications including the vagus nerve stimulation.
"It is an approach – emphasizes the professor Vincenzo Di Lazzaro, Director of the Chair of Neurology atUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma which involves the use of electric and magnetic fields instead of drugs. Through non-invasive magnetic and electrical brain stimulation can modulate the activity of brain cells in order to produce plasticity phenomena that favor functional recovery”. Among the most important and promising innovations is the stimulation of the vagus nerve. “Already successfully used to combat pain and epilepsy, vagus nerve stimulation also appears to be effective in stroke patients”, He adds Di Lazzaro, that explains: "Modulating the excitability of the brain is as if we were 'hacking' the brain and remodulating brain circuits damaged by stroke".

Un new type of stimulation which, contrary to its application in cases of epilepsy, does not involve invasive pacemaker installation procedures in the body, but is limited to sending low-intensity electrical impulses at the level of the auricle.