Robot-assisted and conventional therapies produce distinct rehabilitative trends in stroke survivors.

Journal: Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation
Published Date: Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Comparing the efficacy of alternative therapeutic strategies for the rehabilitation of motor function in chronically impaired individuals is often inconclusive. For example, a recent randomized clinical trial (RCT) compared robot-assisted vs. conventional therapy in 77 patients who had had chronic motor impairment after a cerebrovascular accident. While patients assigned to robotic therapy had greater improvements in the primary outcome measure (change in score on the upper extremity section of the Fugl-Meyer assessment), the absolute difference between therapies was small, which left the clinical relevance in question.

Authors

  • Francisco J Valero-Cuevas
    Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, 3710 McClintock Ave, RTH 404, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-2905, USA. valero@usc.edu.
  • Verena Klamroth-Marganska
    Sensory-Motor Systems Lab, Department of Health Sciences and Technology ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Carolee J Winstein
    Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
  • Robert Riener
    Sensory-Motor Systems Lab, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

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