Patients get a lift

Spc. Patrick Tefft isn't walking on air at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, but he is pretty close.

"It feels good," he said Thursday as he walked on the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill in the Active Duty Rehabilitation Unit.

An air chamber surrounding the treadmill comes up to the waist of the patient. Spc. Tefft, 44, of Statesboro, dons a pair of neoprene shorts with a collar at the top surrounded by a zipper. He then steps into the air chamber and is zipped into it, creating a nearly airtight seal. The air pressure is increased inside the chamber to partially lift him off the treadmill as he walks, up to 80 percent of his body weight.

The technology was designed by NASA to combat bone loss in space and was first intended to do the opposite: Use a vacuum to create an artificial gravity that could hold an astronaut down on a treadmill, said AlterG CEO Lars Barfod.

The same scientist, however, quickly realized that anti-gravity could prove a boon for rehabbing athletes. The company, which was founded in 2005, already has a number of professional teams as customers, including the Atlanta Hawks.

Last year, its anti-gravity treadmill was licensed as a medical device by the Food and Drug Administration. The company recently introduced a newer version at a third of the $75,000 price tag of the original, which should make it more attractive to physical therapy centers, Mr. Barfod said.

"We want to make it more available to everybody," he said.

It has already made its way to about 15 military installations around the U.S. and a number of VA centers, but the Augusta VA might be the only one using it to help rehab active-duty personnel, Mr. Barfod said.

It has a number of advantages over other technologies that suspend the user over the treadmill.

"You get a correct muscle development as you rehab," Mr. Barfod said. "You improve your balance because in our product you're in complete normal balance. And you can gradually return to full weight-bearing in our product, which is unique."

Balance and safety inside the chamber is very important, said Blake Cannon, a physical therapist in the active-duty rehab unit.

"Even if they do lose their balance, you're still going to catch them," he said.

The assisted walking is better for helping patients return to normal function, Mr. Cannon said.

"All day long on a mat or in a chair is just not the same thing as getting up and getting into a normal gait pattern," he said.

The treadmill would be also helpful for rehabbing patients who suffer pain while walking, such as those with a hip stress fracture, Mr. Cannon said.

"Basically what we do is we will increase their support until it is pain-free with what they're doing," he said. "That way they're able to get the functional mobility they need, get the training they need, while not impacting the hip itself."

Spc. Tefft suffered a stroke in May just a week before his Georgia National Guard unit was to deploy to Afghanistan. The stroke robbed him of some function on his right side, which he is still getting back. The testing also revealed something surprising: colon cancer, which was removed surgically.

While he misses his unit and hopes to rejoin it, considering what he has gone through, "I'm kind of glad it did happen," he said.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.