The company designed its Cionic Neural Sleeve to assist in gait for people with foot drop and leg muscle weakness. That includes those with mobility issues due to multiple sclerosis (MS), stroke, cerebral palsy (CP) and other neurological conditions. The lightweight, leg-worn sleeve provides functional electrical stimulation.
Data published in the International Journal of MS Care highlighted the impact of Cionic’s proprietary array-based stimulation technology. The real-world study evaluated the approach to neuromuscular walking challenges associated with foot drop. It looked at two key measures related to difficulties with walking. One, decreased dorsiflexion, constitutes difficulty lifting the foot. The other metric, increased inversion, means the tendency for the ankle and foot to roll inward.
Results demonstrated significant improvements for both measures. All participants experienced improvements to dorsiflexion at heel strike. They also demonstrated reductions in inversion during swing when functional electrical stimulation from the Neural Sleeve activated the affected muscles.
“In order to address the highly individualized and complex mobility challenges of individuals with neurologic conditions, a flexible technology system that continuously interprets their movement and muscular activity and adapts to their needs is paramount,” said Jeremiah Robison, Cionic founder and CEO. “These results show the tremendous power of our software-steered neuromodulation array and real-time adaptive algorithms to improve walking for individuals with MS.”
