ABSTRACT
The global estimate of people who suffer and survive spinal cord injury (SCI) every year is 22 people/million inhabitants, or over 130,000 people each year worldwide [1]. In Australia, there are an estimated 241 SCI injuries/annum or the ratio of 13.2 people/million inhabitants; and in Brazil, according to [2], in 2010 there were 740,456 people in that condition. A majority of SCI patients become lifelong dependent on a wheelchair. The number of users of wheelchairs is significantly higher than people who have suffered SCI. Some of the causes for people to be unable to walk and require wheelchairs include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with 2 people per 100,000 per year, spinal cord tumor, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular distrophy (Duchenne and Becker), myasthenia gravis, and other diseases that affect the neuromuscular system. There are also those people who have lost their lower limbs due to disease, such as diabetes, or accidents, such as road
for People with
trauma, or due to war and conflicts. And added to this list of people is the growing aging population who, due to age-associated weakness and loss of control, are unable to walk and commute unaided.
