Rehabilitation of Motor Function after Stroke: A Multiple Systematic Review Focused on Techniques to Stimulate Upper Extremity Recovery

 Wow, these people need to be removed from stroke!

Rehabilitation of Motor Function after Stroke: A Multiple Systematic Review Focused on Techniques to Stimulate Upper Extremity Recovery

Samar M. Hatem 1, 2, 3 *, Geoffroy Saussez 2 , Margaux della Faille 2 , Vincent Prist 4 , Xue Zhang 5 , Delphine Dispa 2, 6 and Yannick Bleyenheuft 2 1 Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Brugmann University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium, 2 Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, 3 Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, 4 Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Centre Hospitalier de l’Ardenne, Libramont, Belgium, 5 Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, Motor Control Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, 6 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium  

 

Stroke is one of the leading causes for disability worldwide. Motor function deficits due to stroke affect the patients’ mobility, their limitation in daily life activities, their participation in society and their odds of returning to professional activities. All of these factors contribute to a low overall quality of life. Rehabilitation training is the most effective way(No it's not. Only 10% get to full recovery.) to reduce motor impairments(Survivors want full recovery you blithering idiots, not this tyranny of low expectations you are forcing on them!) in stroke patients. This multiple systematic review focuses both on standard treatment methods and on innovating rehabilitation techniques used to promote upper extremity motor function in stroke patients. A total number of 5712 publications on stroke rehabilitation was systematically reviewed for relevance and quality with regards to upper extremity motor outcome. This procedure yielded 270 publications corresponding to the inclusion criteria of the systematic review. Recent technology-based interventions in stroke rehabilitation including non-invasive brain stimulation, robot-assisted training, and virtual reality immersion are addressed. Finally, a decisional tree based on evidence from the literature and characteristics of stroke patients is proposed. At present, the stroke rehabilitation field faces the challenge to tailor evidence-based treatment strategies to the needs of the individual stroke patient. Interventions can be combined in order to achieve the maximal motor function recovery for each patient. Though the efficacy of some interventions may be under debate, motor skill learning, and some new technological approaches give promising outcome prognosis(There is absolutely nothing promising in stroke recovery!) in stroke motor rehabilitation.