Deans' stroke musings: Comparison of Bilateral and Unilateral Training for Upper Extremity Hemiparesis in 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.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Comparison of Bilateral and Unilateral Training for Upper Extremity Hemiparesis in Stroke

It has been 11 years, WHERE THE FUCK IS THE PUBLIC VERSION OF THIS STROKE PROTOCOL LOCATED? If your doctor and stroke hospital don't know, they need to be fired because of incompetence and irresponsibility.

Comparison of Bilateral and Unilateral Training for Upper Extremity Hemiparesis in Stroke

http://nnr.sagepub.com/content/23/9/945The online version of this article can be found at: DOI: 10.1177/1545968309338190
originally published online 16 June 2009
Mary Ellen Stoykov, PhD, Gwyn N. Lewis, PhD, and Daniel M. Corcos, PhD
Background.
Upper extremity hemiparesis is the most common poststroke disability. Longitudinal studies have indicated that 30% to 66% of stroke survivors do not have full arm function 6 months poststroke. One promising treatment approach is bilateral training. To date, no randomized, blinded study of efficacy comparing 2 groups (bilateral training vs unilateral training) using analogous tasks has been performed in chronic stroke survivors with moderate upper extremity impairment.
Objective. To compare the effectiveness of bilateral training with unilateral training for individuals with moderate upper limb hemiparesis. The authors hypothesized that bilateral training would be superior to unilateral training in the proximal extremity but not the distal one.
Methods. Twenty-four subjects participated in a randomized, single-blind training study. Subjects in the bilateral group (n = 12) practiced bilateral symmetrical activities, whereas the unilateral group (n = 12) performed the same activity with the affected arm only. The activities consisted of reaching-based tasks that were both rhythmic and discrete. The Motor Assessment Scale (MAS), Motor Status Scale (MSS), and muscle strength were used as outcome measures. Assessments were administered at baseline and posttraining by a rater blinded to group assignment.
Results. Both groups had significant improvements on the MSS and measures of strength. The bilateral group had significantly greater improvement on the Upper Arm Function scale (a subscale of the MAS-Upper Limb Items).
Conclusion. Both bilateral and unilateral training are efficacious for moderately impaired chronic stroke survivors. Bilateral training may be more advantageous for proximal arm function.