POTENTIAL OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN NEUROREHABILITATION OF POST-COVID SYNDROME (WITH PRESENTATION OF CLINICAL CASES)
Ivet Koleva, Radoslav Yoshinov and Borislav Yoshinov
Pages: 85-93
ABSTRACT: In the environment of the actual COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges before the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation are important. We observe many clinical problems – during the acute period and in Post-COVID syndrome. In clinical rehabilitation practice, our work is oriented principally to post-COVID-patients with cardio-vascular, neurological, neuro-cognitive and psychic disorders.
During last years, we perceive introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) in every field, including in rehabilitation, with thematic fields: education, diagnostic and treatment.
Neurorehabilitation is an interdisciplinary domain between neurology, neurosurgery, physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM).
In clinical rehabilitation practice, ICT are useful in diagnostic and therapy. For diagnostic goals, we apply ICT for electroneurgraphy and electromyography, excitomotory electrodiagnistic, stabilometry. In the domain of Neurorehabilitation, we use ICT for training of movements by functional electrical stimulations, training of movements of lower extremities with Exoskeleton with Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL); training of movements of upper extremities with a virtual computer-based system (TYRO-system), training of the balance and gait with LOCOMAT.
For illustration, we present the potential of contemporaneous ICT methods (robotic rehabilitation, exoskeletons, virtual reality, Locomat) in some clinical cases of post-COVID patients with vertebra-basilar insufficiency, post-stroke hemiparesis, motor-neuron disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Keywords: neurorehabilitation, post-COVID-syndrom, robotic rehabilitation, virtual reality
