Soutenance publique de thèse de Maxime GILLIAUX.

Maxime GILLIAUX est doctorant en sciences de la motricité (UCL, Belgique) au sein du pôle COSY (Système et Cognition) de l'IoNS. Pour en découvrir plus sur ses travaux, vous êtes cordialement invités (invitation ) à assister à sa défense publique le jeudi 11 juin 2015 à 17h aux Auditoires Centraux C (UCL/LEW).

Promoteurs : Prof. Christine Detrembleur, PhD (UCL) & Prof. Gaëtan Stoquart, MD, PhD (UCL)

ABSTRACT : Cerebral palsy (CP) and stroke are major causes of permanent disabilities. These disabilities justify intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation and regular assessments, which could be optimized using robotics. This PhD thesis investigated the clinical interest in robotic devices to assess and rehabilitate upper limb movements in CP children and stroke adults. This investigation was performed with the REAplan robot, which is an end-effector robotic device that moves the patient’s upper limb in a horizontal plane using various assistance modes (i.e., active, active-passive, passive). The first part of this thesis investigated how a robotic device could quantitatively assess upper limb movements in both populations. A standardized protocol was developed to assess upper limb kinematics using the REAplan robot in CP children and stroke adults. The reproducibility, validity, responsiveness and reference standards of this protocol were established, and a short version of this protocol was provided to facilitate the assessment of upper limb kinematics in routine clinical practice. The second part of this thesis investigated how a robotic device could efficiently rehabilitate upper limb movements in CP children. A standardized protocol for robot-assisted therapy (RAT) was first developed according to the current recommendations in CP neuro-rehabilitation. This protocol was used in a single-blind randomized controlled trial that assessed the efficacy of RAT in CP children. This trial showed that the combination of conventional therapy (CT) and RAT could significantly improve upper limb kinematics and manual dexterity in CP children compared with CT alone. Thus, robotic devices could quantitatively assess and efficiently rehabilitate upper limb movements in CP children and stroke adults. These findings would not have been possible without close collaboration between engineers, technicians, clinicians and researchers. Further similar collaborations should be encouraged to facilitate technological integration in rehabilitation.