Deans' stroke musings: Efficacy of a Hip Flexion Assist Orthosis in Adults With Hemiparesis After Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Efficacy of a Hip Flexion Assist Orthosis in Adults With Hemiparesis After Stroke

I do wonder what the orthosis looks like.
http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/early/2012/01/06/ptj.20110112.abstract
picture here:
http://www.btmrehab.com/retailproducts/hfad/hfad.htm
I bet I could recreate it with bungee cords.

Abstract

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of a newly developed hip flexion assist orthosis in adult patients with hemiparesis after stroke.

Design The study used a prospective, randomized, before-after trial design. The inclusion criteria were hemiparesis resulting from stroke (onset ≥8 weeks); ability to walk, even if with assistance; and hip flexion weakness (Medical Research Council scale ≤4).

Methods The main outcome measures were the 10-meter walk test and the 6-minute walk test. Patients were also evaluated with the Trunk Control Test, Functional Ambulation Categories, Motricity Index, and hip flexor strength on the Medical Research Council scale. 62 stroke survivors were tested in random order with and without the orthosis. Any adverse event associated with its use was recorded.

Results Both the 6-minute walk test and the 10-meter walk test improved with the use of the orthosis (p<0.0001). A significant negative correlation was noticed between the improvement in the 2 main outcome measures with the orthosis and the Functional Ambulation Categories. The improvement in the 6-minute walk test with the orthosis was inversely related to hip flexor strength.

Conclusions Our data show that the use of a hip flexion assist orthosis can improve gait in patients with post-stroke hemiparesis, particularly those with more severe walking impairment.