DE29711645U1 - Training device - Google Patents

Description

TER MEER STEINMEISTER & PARTNER GBR

PATENT ATTORNEYS - EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEYS

Dr. Nicolaus ter Meer, Dipl.-Chem. Helmut Steinmeister. Dipl.-Ing. Peter Urner, Dipl.-Phys. Manfred Wiebusch Gebhard Merkle, Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Mauerkircherstrasse 45 Artur-Ladebeck-Strasse D-81679 MUNICH D-33617 BIELEFELD

SIB PO1/97 26.6.1997

Dirk-Horst Siebold

Turmfalkenweg lc 33758 Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock

TRAINING EQUIPMENT

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DESCRIPTION

The invention relates to a training device which is used in medical therapy and rehabilitation to strengthen the muscles and/or to train the sensorimotor system of patients.

Known training devices of this type have arm levers and foot levers that are operated by the patient with the arms or legs, overcoming a certain resistance, or that are driven by a motor or the like in order to passively move the patient's extremities. In some cases, it can be helpful for the patient to be able to control the passive movement of an injured extremity himself, for example by controlling the passive movement of the right leg by moving his right arm, or vice versa.

From WO 97/06859 A1 a training device according to the preamble of claim 1 is known, in which the arm and foot levers belonging to the same side of the body can be mechanically coupled to one another.

The object of the invention is to create a training device with which more complex movement sequences can be trained and thus additional therapeutic effects can be achieved.

This object is achieved in a training device of the above-mentioned type in that each arm lever has a pivoting hand support plate and each foot lever has a pivoting foot support plate and that the pivoting movement of each arm support plate relative to the arm lever can be coupled with the pivoting movement of the associated foot support plate relative to the foot lever.
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With this device, the user can not only induce a passive leg movement through active arm movement, but can also simultaneously induce a corresponding movement of the ankle by bending the wrist. In this way, movement coordination can be effectively trained in more complex movement sequences. The device is also suitable for training the forearm and lower leg muscles responsible for hand and foot movements. For example,

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The patient trains the forearm muscles by bending the hand support surface with his hand and applying a measured counter pressure with his foot.

Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention emerge from the subclaims.

The coupling between the various support plates can be done mechanically, for example by means of rods or cables, or electronically using motion sensors, motors and suitable control electronics. It is also possible to provide resistance to the patient's active movements by braking the movements of the support plates and/or the arm and foot levers with a controlled force or by opposing these movements with an elastic restoring force or a weight force. If motor drives are provided for the arm and foot levers and/or the support plates, passive movement therapy can also be carried out, whereby the total of eight degrees of freedom of the arm, leg, hand and foot movements can be flexibly coupled with one another in a program-controlled manner.

According to a further development of the invention, each hand support plate has at least one pivotable finger lever and each foot support plate has at least one pivotable toe lever, and the pivoting movements of the finger and toe levers are also coupled to one another. The coupling can be made for all fingers of the hand and all toes of the corresponding foot together or for each pair of fingers and toes separately or in groups, for example for the thumb and big toe on the one hand and the other fingers and toes on the other.

The position of the swivel axes for the arm and foot levers and the various support plates is preferably adjustable so that the device can be adapted to the body dimensions of different patients.
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In the following, preferred embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail with reference to the drawing.

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Show it:

Fig. 1 is a schematic side view of the training device according to the invention; and
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Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of an arm lever with hand support plate according to another embodiment.

The training device shown in Figure 1 has a vertical column 12 arranged in front of a bench 10, on which a joint 14 for two arm levers 16, 18 and a joint 20 for two foot levers 22, 24 are held in a height-adjustable manner. The two arm levers 16, 18 can be rotated individually about a common horizontal axis passing through the joint 14. The same applies to the two foot levers 22, 24.
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Each arm lever 16, 18 and each foot lever 22, 24 has a joint 26 near its free end, to which a hand support plate 28 is pivotably attached in the case of the arm lever 16, 18 and a foot support plate 30 in the case of the foot lever 22, 24. The pivot axes of the support plates also run horizontally.

The patient sitting on the bench 10 places both hands on the hand support plates 28 and both feet on the foot support plates 30 in order to rotate the arm levers 16, 18 by actively moving the arms and/or the foot levers 20, 22 by actively moving the legs.

The arm lever 16 for the patient's right arm and the foot lever 22 for the patient's right leg are connected by a rod 32 that extends between the joints 26. In this way, the movements of the right arm and foot levers are mechanically coupled to one another. In a corresponding manner, the movements of the arm lever 18 for the left arm and the foot lever 24 for the patient's left leg are also coupled to one another by a rod 32. Furthermore, the hand and foot support plates 28, 30 for each side of the body are coupled to one another by a rod 34. Optionally, the movements of the arm and foot levers 16, 22 for the right side of the body can also be coupled to the movements of the arm and foot levers 18, 24 for the left side of the body at the joints 14, 20.

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The phase difference between these movements does not have to be 180° as in the example shown, but can take any angle between 0 and 360°.

If the patient cannot actively move one or both legs, for example as a result of a stroke or a spinal cord injury, the patient uses his arms to operate the arm levers 16, 18, so that the foot levers 22, 24 also move due to the coupling and thus the patient's legs perform a corresponding passive movement. In addition, the patient can pivot the hand support plates 28 by moving his wrists, so that the foot support plates 30 and thus the patient's feet are also pivoted accordingly due to the coupling by the rods 34.

Accordingly, if the arms are unable to move, passive movement of the arms and hands can be controlled with the help of the patient's legs and feet.

The patient's hands and feet are preferably strapped onto the corresponding support plates so that the patient can also lift these support plates. The height adjustment of the joints 14, 20 enables the device to be adapted to the patient's anatomy. The positions of the joints 26 in the longitudinal direction of the relevant arm and foot levers can also be adjusted.
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Figure 2 shows the arm lever 18 with associated hand support plate 28 according to a modified embodiment.

The hand support plate 28 is formed here by several parallel slats 36, which can all be pivoted about the common joint 26 and are arranged one behind the other in Figure 1 in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. In the area of the free ends, the slats 26 are connected to one another by two bolts 38. The hand support plate also comprises four or five auxiliary slats 40, which engage between the slats 36 in a comb-like manner. Each auxiliary slat 40 has a joint 42 at the free end, to which a finger lever 44 is pivotably attached. The user slides his fingers under a bracket 46 of the associated finger lever 44, so that he can

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lever can be moved up and down individually with the fingers.

In this embodiment, the foot support plates (not shown) have the same basic structure as the hand support plate 28. Each finger lever 44 is coupled to a corresponding toe lever of the foot support plate via a rod 48. The patient can thus control the movement of his toes individually using his fingers.

The auxiliary lamellae 40 each have an elongated hole 50 through which the bolts 38 pass, and are thus held on the lamellae 36 in an individually adjustable length. In this way, the position of the joints 42 can be adapted to the position of the corresponding first finger joints. In addition, the auxiliary lamellae 40 are adjustable in the longitudinal direction of the bolts 38, so that the distances between the auxiliary lamellae and thus also the distances between the finger levers 44 can be adapted to the width of the patient's hand. The finger levers can also be angled or bent at the side in order to achieve an adaptation to the spread of the fingers of the hand.

In the example shown, the finger levers 44 can be pivoted about horizontal axes. Alternatively, however, instead of the fifth finger lever, a thumb lever (not shown) can be provided which can be pivoted about an oblique axis in accordance with the anatomy of the human hand.

Claims (6)

1. Training device with two arm levers ( 16 , 18 ) and two foot levers ( 22 , 24 ), in which the movement of each arm lever can be coupled at least with the movement of the associated foot lever, characterized in that each arm lever ( 16 , 18 ) has a pivotable hand support plate ( 28 ) and each foot lever ( 22 , 24 ) has a pivotable foot support plate and that the pivoting movement of each hand support plate ( 28 ) relative to the arm lever can be coupled with the pivoting movement of the associated foot support plate ( 30 ) relative to the foot lever. 2. Training device according to claim 1, characterized in that each hand support plate ( 28 ) has at least one pivotable finger lever ( 44 ) and each foot support plate ( 30 ) has at least one pivotable toe lever and that the pivoting movements of the corresponding finger and toe levers can be coupled to one another. 3. Training device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the coupling of the hand support plates ( 28 ) with the foot support plates ( 30 ) and optionally the coupling between the finger and toe levers takes place via rods ( 34 , 48 ). 4. Training device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the coupling between the hand support plates ( 28 ) and the foot support plates ( 30 ) and optionally between the corresponding finger and toe levers takes place via cables or gears. 5. Training device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the coupling between the hand support plates ( 28 ) and the foot support plates ( 30 ) and optionally the coupling between the finger and toe levers takes place via motion sensors and motors controlled electronically based on the signals from the motion sensors. 6. Training device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the positions of the joints ( 14 , 20 ) about which the arm and foot levers can be pivoted and/or the positions of the joints ( 26 ) about which the hand and foot support plates can be pivoted and, if necessary, the positions of the joints ( 42 ) of the finger and toe levers are adjustable.