Hand rehabilitation with sonification techniques in the subacute stage of stroke

 You'll have to ask your doctor and therapists for sonification, it's only been out there for 10 years.

Sonification has been written about for 10 years. It is about time for our fucking failures of stroke associations to step up to the plate and write a stroke protocol on this. I can guarantee this won't occur.

 

sonification (11 posts to May 2012)

After a stroke event, most survivors suffer from arm paresis, poor motor control and other disabilities that make activities of daily living difficult, severely affecting quality of life and personal independence. This randomized controlled trial aimed at evaluating the efficacy of a music-based sonification approach on upper limbs motor functions, quality of life and pain perceived during rehabilitation. The study involved 65 subacute stroke individuals during inpatient rehabilitation allocated into 2 groups which underwent usual care dayweek) respectively of standard upper extremity motor rehabilitation or upper extremity treatment with sonification techniques. The FuglMeyer Upper Extremity Scale, Box and Block Test and the Modified Ashworth Scale were used to perform motor assessment and the McGill Quality of Life-it and the Numerical Pain Rating Scale to assess quality of life and pain. The assessment was performed at baseline, after 2 weeks, at the end of treatment and at follow-up (1 month after the end of treatment). Total scores of the Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity Scale (primary outcome measure) and hand and wrist sub scores, manual dexterity scores of the affected and unaffected limb in the Box and Block Test, pain scores of the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (secondary outcomes measures) significantly improved in the sonification group compared to the standard of care group (time*group interaction < 0.05). Our findings suggest that music-based sonification sessions can be considered an effective standardized intervention for the upper limb in subacute stroke rehabilitation. After a stroke event, most survivors (80–90%) suffer from arm paresis, poor motor control and other disabilities, which evolve in a chronic condition in about 30–40% of cases^1,2 . Consequently, patients have difficulty in performing activities of daily living, a fact that severely affects their quality of life and independence³ . Task-oriented sensory-motor training, which allows to transmit the sensory information of the feedback to the central nervous system during task execution, and movements adaptation, is recognized as significant in increasing poststroke arm function and dexterity^2,4 . Beside other factors, such as patient’s compliance and subjective interest in stimulus, the intensity of training and patient’s motivation have been indicated as key features for a successful rehabilitation therapy^5,6 . The development of technologies for rehabilitation has made it possible to formulate new application paradigms obtained by integrating the current rehabilitation pathways with instrumental interventions^7,8 . Sensory motor rehabilitation techniques, obtained through technological devices (such as virtual reality, robots, noninvasive stimulations , motion capture) and used in support of traditional rehabilitation techniques, seem to provide objective parameters for patient evaluation, accelerate the process of motor recovery and improve motor performance at discharge by means of a top-down approach9,10 . Although the results obtained with the currently available devices are encouraging, we are only at an early stage for the exploitation of these technologies. In fact, while technology-assisted rehabilitation of the upper limb has demonstrated to have a significant impact on motor outcomes, especially at the proximal level (shoulder 

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