Evaluation of Motor Recovery in Adult Patients with Hemiplegic stroke

Abstract

Background: Assessment of treatment efficacy through outcomes evaluation is an established practice in stroke rehabilitation. The evaluation of motor recovery is a cornerstone of the assessment of patients with stroke; and an integral component of stroke rehabilitation.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the recovery of motor functions in patients with stroke, using the STREAM measure.

Method: A pre-test/post-test research design was utilized. The performance of 19 stroke patients (11 males and 8 females) with acute stroke was assessed with the STREAM measure before and after 8 weeks of physiotherapy intervention. The mean age of the subjects was 60.21+10.81 while the mean days post-stroke onset was 11.79+6.38.

Results: Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test indicated a statistically significant increase (p<05) in scores of subjects on the STREAM measure for the different subscales: upper limb subscale (Z= -2.823, P=0.005), lower limb subscale (Z= -2.823, P=0.005) and mobility subscale (Z= -2.805, P=0.005).

Conclusion: Stroke rehabilitation, especially physiotherapy, started early in the acute phase resulted in significant recovery of motor functions in patients with stroke.


Keywords: Stroke, Outcome measure, motor recovery, stroke rehabilitation.

NQJHM Vol. 16 (1) 2005: pp. 10-13