Deans' stroke musings: A Comparative Study to Assess the Effects of Comprehensive Rehabilitation Programme with and without Bobath Sling in Post-stroke Painful Shoulder Subluxation

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.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

A Comparative Study to Assess the Effects of Comprehensive Rehabilitation Programme with and without Bobath Sling in Post-stroke Painful Shoulder Subluxation

Who still uses NDT(Bobath) in stroke rehab when it should have been shitcanned since 2003? Physiotherapy Based on the Bobath Concept for Adults with Post-Stroke Hemiplegia: A Review of Effectiveness Studies 2003)

A Comparative Study to Assess the Effects of Comprehensive Rehabilitation Programme with and without Bobath Sling in Post-stroke Painful Shoulder Subluxation

Mukherjee, Ushnish¹; Ghosal, Vasundhara¹; Ray, Siddhartha Sinha¹; Mandal, Pankaj Kumar²; Khatua, Dilip Kumar³

Author Information

Indian Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation 35(3):p 205-211, Sep–Dec 2025. | DOI: 10.4103/ijpmr.ijpmr_24_25

Open

Abstract

Background:

Post-stroke painful shoulder subluxation is a common condition in day-to-day Physiatric practice. Rehabilitative strategies along with the use of different shoulder supports showed variable outcomes while managing these patients.

Aims and Objectives:

To assess the effects of using Bobath shoulder sling in Post-stroke painful shoulder subluxation.

Materials and Methods:

This comparative study was conducted with patients of post-stroke painful shoulder subluxation after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Participants were randomly divided into two groups (group 1 and 2) and managed with a comprehensive rehabilitation programme. Bobath shoulder sling was given only to the group 1. Intensity of shoulder pain was measured by 0-10 Numerical Rating Scale(NRS). Acromio-Greater Tuberosity Distance difference (AGTDD) was used for gleno-humeral subluxation quantification, and Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) was used for assessing sensori-motor recovery. All the variables were measured at the baseline/visit 1, 6^th week/visit 2, 12^th week/visit 3 and 24^th week/visit 4. Total 30 cases (15 in each group) were analysed.

Results:

Intra-group analysis showed improvement in all parameters during all the follow ups (P < 0.001). During inter group comparison, group1 showed a statistically significant improvement during follow up at 6^th week in terms of pain intensity (P = 0.029), degree of shoulder subluxation (P = 0.036) and sensorimotor recovery (P = 0.023). But, subsequent follow up visits showed no significant difference between the groups (P > 0.05).

Conclusion:

Use of Bobath shoulder sling was beneficial in early stages of stroke, but it did not provide extra advantage in long term use. However, long term continuation of comprehensive rehabilitation programme was shown to be beneficial.