More than 17 million people worldwide have Cerebral Palsy (CP). 1 to 5 out of 1000 birth rates that are affected in Indonesia.
CP is an abnormality condition that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain their balance and posture. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021, 40.8% of patients have basic motor impairment and 33.3% have no walking ability, making cerebral palsy the most common cause of motor impairment for children in the world.
Based on this issue, a team of five students from Undergraduate Physiotherapy Program Unhas, created an innovation that can assist therapeutic intervention in patients with Cerebral Palsy in children. This innovation was entered in Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa (PKM) and Pekan Ilmiah Mahasiswa Nasional (Pimnas) ke-36 in Universitas Padjadjaran 2023.
This innovation named Smart Skeleton, is designed based on the Neurodevelopmental Therapy (NDT) principle. There are three main parts of it consisting of inhibition of abnormal movements and postures, facilitation of patient movements, and stimulation of the nervous system.
Team leader, Anjaswari Resti Arimbi said this idea appeared after an observation in one foundation, Yayasan Peduli Anak Cacat (YPAC) in Makassar. The result showed that children tend to feel uncomfortable when doing therapy there because the tools used are incompatible with their growth and development age.
“So that time in PKM, I immediately thought of making a tool that applies the NDT method used by physiotherapists in treating all CP patients. The rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy takes a long time, so the therapy is lifelong,” she said.
This kind of technology that is helpful for children has been made in many countries, including orthosis, walking frame, exoskeleton, and atlas pediatric exo. However, the PKM team’s tool has its advantages that distinguish it from the prior.
Smart Skeleton has its advantages that do not exist yet in the prior findings. The tool applies the three principles from NDT and uses the best and cheapest servo motor in its class with a considerable torque of around 21.8 kilograms/centimetre.
In addition, it also uses a brace that serves to hold the child’s anatomical position. The brace uses non-irritant and removable materials to maintain a sterile condition for washing purposes.
“We added electrical Stimulation as stimulation of the sensory and motor nervous system for children with CP, because to get motor improvement, we need to activate Sensor Motor Integration (SMI),” she added.
The woman called Ara said, the Smart Skeleton is friendly to use since it uses carbon fibre which is proven to be strong and lightweight to withstand loads of up to 4000 newtons. This tool is also equipped with a distance sensor to detect objects that are dangerous to the users. The sensor on this tool can detect objects that are in front with a distance of about 2 centimetres to 4.5 meters, provided that the object is flat and large.
“This sensor is connected to a buzzer which works like a bell and will ring when near an object. This sensor also has the same properties as a car, if it gets closer to the object the sound will also get faster and louder so we think this can already provide sufficient security for users,” Ara said.
Regarding the durability of the Smart Skeleton, the physiotherapy student revealed that the actuator that drives the tool can be used for 4-5 hours with a recharge time of less than 1 hour. This usage time is enough for the entire circuit on the Smart Skeleton, which is adjusted to the therapy dose.
Although Smart Skeleton is has not gone through direct testing with CP patients, this tool has gone through various kinds of function tests. This function test includes testing the electrical system and mechanical system to find out whether the servo motor can work properly according to the degree of range of motion needed by CP patients.
“We checked the angle of motion and tested the flow released by electrical stimulation, whether it fulfilled the dose for CP patients or not,” she explained.
Although her tool has not been tested directly on CP patients, she still holds hope for further development of this tool. Ara hopes that the tool he made can be tested directly on CP sufferers with a wider range of users.
“Honestly this tool can be tried out on CP patients, but we think it still needs further development to produce a tool that is really sturdy and competent,” she concluded.
Read the original text in Bahasa Indonesia.
Translated by: Nabila Rifqah Awaluddin & Muhammad Alif M.
