Robotic suit lets paralyzed individuals walk hands-free – trial underway

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

SCI user inclusion Criteria: * Any gender, age 18 years or older; * Motor complete or incomplete SCI with lesions at or above T6; * ≥ 6 months post SCI; * Able and willing to attend 9 to 10 visits1 to the center, including sessions of training and assessments of one-to-three hours duration; * Able to read, understand, and provide informed consent; * Living in the US and speaks English. SCI user exclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of neurological injury other than SCI; * Progressive condition that would be expected to result in changing neurological status; * Severe concurrent medical disease, illness or condition judged to be contraindicated by the site physician; * Unhealed or unstable traumatic or high impact lower extremity fracture of any duration that is, in the clinical judgement of the study physician, exclusionary for standing and walking; * Knee (proximal tibia and/or distal femur) BMD \<0.60 gm/cm2; * Total hip BMD T-scores \< -3.5; * Fragility, minimal trauma, or low impact fracture of the lower extremity since SCI; * Untreatable severe spasticity judged to be contraindicated by the site physician; * Untreated/uncontrolled hypertension, as judged to be contraindicated by the site physician; * Unresolved orthostatic hypotension (change from baseline seated BP to a fall in 20mmHg SBP and/or fall in 10mmHG DBP and symptoms when standing), or as judged to be contraindicated by the site physician; * Open or unhealed skin pressure sores, abrasions, or bruises at any of the contact points of the exoskeleton; * Morphological contraindications to the use of the device; * Uncorrectable leg length discrepancy over 2 cm (about 0.79 in) when using additional correction tools; * Unable to effectively operate the device with a hand-control interface, due to functional and/or cognitive impairment, evaluated based on the ability to manipulate the joystick in all direction, press and identify buttons on the hand control interface. * Improper fitting in the device; * Psychopathology documentation in the medical record that may conflict with study objectives; * Pregnancy or women who plan to become pregnant during the study period; * Concurrent participation in another interventional trial; * History of uncontrolled autonomic dysreflexia; * Presence colostomy and/or urostomy; * Ventilator use at the time of the exoskeleton use. Companion inclusion Criteria: * Any gender, age 18 years or older; * Willingness to attend 9 to 10 visits to the center, including sessions of training and assessments of one-to-three hours duration with the SCI user; * Able to read, understand and provide informed consent; * Living in the US and speaks English. Companion exclusion Criteria: * Inability to communicate with an assistant due to cognitive and language disorders; * Any disease, concomitant injury, or condition that interferes with the performance or interpretation of the protocol- specified assessments; * Insufficient strength and performance capability, evidenced by the ability to hold and retain the device in case of unbalance/fall; * Insufficient availability to complete the study; * Concurrent participation in another interventional trial.