Restitution of reaching and grasping promoted by functional electrical therapy.
Functional electrical therapy (FET) is a new term describing a combination of functional electrical stimulation that generates life-like movement and intensive exercise in humans with central nervous system lesions. We hypothesized that FET can promote a significant recovery of functioning if applied in subacute stroke subjects. The study included 16 stroke subjects divided into a low functioning group (LFG) and a high functioning group (HFG) based on their ability to control wrist and fingers and randomly associated into FET and controls. The FET consisted of 30 min daily sessions during 3 weeks. The exercise comprised functional use of daily necessary activities (e.g., writing, using a telephone receiver, and drinking from a can). The outcome presented in this article is the upper-extremity function test performed before and after the therapy. The change in performance of the HFG group was significant. The number of successful repetitive movements in 2 min was doubled and 1.6 times increased for controls, and the time to perform the movement was decreased by 71% percent and by 36% in controls. In the LFG FET group, the difference in performance was the following. First, the number of tasks was increased from 0 to 6 (total of 11 tasks). Second, the averaged number of successful repetitive movements was increased from 0 to 3. The functional improvement in the FET LFG is probably not sufficient to make the more affected arm/hand effective for daily necessities; thus, the FET effects could deteriorate over a longer time. The subjects from the control LFG made only a marginal improvement. The follow-up for each subject will continue for 12 months after the beginning of the treatment.
Popovic
Mirjana B
MB
Center for Sensory Motor Interaction, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. mpo@smi.auc.dk
Popovic
Dejan B
DB
Sinkjaer
Thomas
T
Stefanovic
Aleksandra
A
Schwirtlich
Laszlo
L
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D018737:Hand Strength; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome