(ANSA) - Rome, February 10 - Two new physical-therapy robots
to help young patients regain movement in their arms, hands, and
wrists were inaugurated Wednesday at Bambin Gesù Children's
Hospital in Santa Marinella, a coastal town about an hour north
of Rome.
The robots will be used by at least six patients a day in
one-hour sessions to help support and correct arm movements.
The patients have motor function deficits from neurological
damage, as a result of congenital diseases like cerebral palsy
or non-congenital sources such as head trauma.
Motor function deficits affect 200,000 children in Italy
and 20,000 in the Lazio region alone.
"It's a play approach," said rehabilitation laboratory
director Enrico Castelli.
"The child doesn't realise he's doing it; in one session
they do more than a thousand movements," he said.
The machines are the first of their kind in the region of
Lazio, and were purchased with funding from the non-profit
Fondazione Roma.
"Functional recovery comes thanks to two robots of the
latest technology," said Fondazione Roma Chairman Emmanuele F.M.
Emanuele.
"It shows how applied scientific research today represents
the principal tool of progress".
Two new robots help children recover at hospital
Assist in regaining movement in arm, hand, wrist