Original title:
Comparison of Robotics, Functional Electrical Stimulation, and Motor Learning Methods for Treatment of Persistent Upper Extremity Dysfunction After Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Why you must read this article:
If you wonder how much is the highest volume of therapy ever provided to stroke patients, here it is: 300 hours. Beyond this, the article of McCabe et al. is interesting in many ways: first, it considers patients with severe upper limb impairment in the chronic phase after stroke, which is a very challenging cathegory of patients often neglected by research trials; second, it applies a high intensity intervention (5 hours a day for 12 weeks) based on motor learning principles; third, it compares motor training versus robotics, versus functional electrical stimulation, which is a very valuable way of demonstrating whether the effect of an intervention depends on the type, or just on the volume of therapy delivered; finally, the methodology is described in great detail, which is useful to replicate the same results with our patients.
Highlights:
Have a look at the video uploaded as supplementary data, that shows the improvement of function in a very severely impaired stroke patient:
PubMed:
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