Picelli et al. “Combined effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) on robot-assisted gait training in patients with chronic stroke: A pilot, double blind, randomized controlled trial.” Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 33 (2015) 357–368
The aim of this pilot study was to compare different stimulation techniques while having robot assisted gait training. 30 chronic stroke patients were enrolled and divided into three groups: anodal tDCS + sham tsDCS (group 1; n = 10) or sham tDCS + cathodal tsDCS (group 2; n = 10) or tDCS + cathodal tsDCS (group 3; n = 10) The G-EO System was used to have robotic training of all patients. The intervention with the G-EO System was a training session of 20 minutes every workday for 2 weeks (10 therapies in total for each patient). The outcome of interest was the walking independence measured by the distance walked during a 6 Minutes Walking Test before intervention, after the intervention and at 2 and 4 weeks follow up. All the patients who underwent the G-EO treatment could improve their walking independence. The preliminary findings support the hypothesis that anodal tDCS combined with cathodal tsDCS may improve the effects of robotic gait training in chronic stroke.