Deans' stroke musings: Rehabilitation of the Upper Extremity after Stroke: A Case Series Evaluating REO Therapy and an Auditory Sensor Feedback for Trunk Control

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.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Rehabilitation of the Upper Extremity after Stroke: A Case Series Evaluating REO Therapy and an Auditory Sensor Feedback for Trunk Control

You'll have to have your therapist explain this one.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423950/

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:

Task-related training (TRT) but not resistive exercise (RE) was found to improve the path of the hand of a hemiparetic upper extremity when reaching to targets. Forward movement of the trunk, however, compensated for the poststroke motor impairment. Prior studies also demonstrated that short-term practice of reaching to grasp objects with truncal motion restrained (compared to unrestrained practice) increased elbow extension, lessened compensatory trunk movement, and improved interjoint coordination during performance with the trunk unrestrained.

OBJECTIVE:

To determine the effects of TRT and RE on unrestrained reaching following extended practice in which compensatory truncal motion was limited.

METHODS:

Using a restraining device to reduce movement of the trunk, hemiparetic patients with moderately severe motor impairment were given 12 sessions over 4 weeks of TRT (n = 5) or RE (n = 6). Reaching when the trunk was not restrained to targets located ipsilateral, midline, and contralateral to the impaired arm was tested before and 2 days after training by 3D kinematic analyses.

RESULTS:

After both training protocols, kinematic analysis showed that trunk flexion decreased (P < .01, eta(2) = .53) scapular motion shifted toward protraction (P < .01, eta(2) = .57) and elbow extension increased (P < .04, eta(2) = .39). Only after TRT did the path of the hand straighten (P < .02, eta(2) = .46), deceleration time decrease (P < .03, eta(2) = .44), and, at the difficult ipsilateral target, shoulder flexion increase (P < .03, eta( 2) = .31).

CONCLUSIONS:

Training that restricted compensatory truncal motion during TRT improved the precision of reaching more than during RE. Truncal restraint during rehabilitation of reaching may be an effective therapeutic strategy in patients with moderately severe hemiparetic stroke, especially when combined with TRT.