Background. Various types of external powered orthoses have been designed to improve the function of paraplegic subjects; however it is not clear which one of them has better performance. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the function of available external powered orthoses based on the research presented in the relevant literature. Method. An electronic search was done via the Pubmed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge data from 1960 to 2010. The quality of the research studies was evaluated by use of Black and Down tool. The performances of the orthoses are evaluated based on the gait analysis, stability analysis, and energy consumption analysis. Results. Although various types of external powered orthoses have been designed to improve the performance of spinal cord injury individuals, there are a few research studies in this regard. Moreover, they have a poor quality. Conclusion. There is no research study regarding the performance of spinal cord injury subjects with the external powered orthoses. It is recommended to do clinical trial studies to evaluate the performance of these orthoses. 1. Introduction Spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage or trauma to spinal cord that results in loss of function, mobility, and sensation below the level at which the spinal cord has been injured. This disorder is characterized according to amount of functional loss, sensation loss, and inability of a SCI individual to stand and walk [1–3]. The incidence of this disorder varies between 12.7 and 59 new cases per million each year [4–6]. The total population of individuals with SCI in the UK and USA is 40,000 and between 183,000 and 230,000, respectively [7]. These patients can use various types of orthoses and wheelchair to transfer from place to place. It has been shown that walking with an orthosis brings some benefits for the patients which include decreasing bone osteoporosis, prevention of pressure sores, and improving the function of digestive system [8, 9]. A variety of orthoses have been designed in order to improve the ability of the subjects to stand and walk, such as the mechanical orthoses, external powered orthoses, functional electrical stimulation, and hybrid system which is a combination of an orthosis and electrical stimulation [8, 10–20]. To the authors’ knowledge, the performance of SCI individuals while standing and walking with the mechanical orthoses is low. Moreover, the patients experience some problems in terms of energy consumption and high loads which are applied on upper limb during walking [21–23]. The external powered systems
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