The Rutgers Arm II rehabilitation system: A case series

The Rutgers Arm II system consists of a low-friction tilting table, a vision-tracked forearm support, a PC and a large display. Patients play a number of custom Java 3D games using their affected arm while supported by- or resisted by gravity through the table tilting. Four chronic post-stroke subjects (between 6 months and 5 years following stroke) trained for 12 half-hour rehabilitation sessions on the system over four weeks. Their Fugl-Meyer upper extremity subset scores improved 1 to 7 points (10 to 27 %) while arm reach area (measured on the RAII surface) grew between 156% and 307%. Both high- and low-functioning patients were able to play the games, and liked the system (average subjective evaluation of 6 out of 7).