The effect of botulinum toxin type A injection with ankle-foot orthosis on patients with post-stroke lower limb spasticity / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the efficacy of botulinum toxin type A injection with ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) for the treatment of post-stroke lower limb spasticity.Methods One hundred and three stroke patients with lower limb spasticity were randomly divided into control group,observation group and treatment group.The patients in control group were given routine treatment,those in observation group were given botulinum toxin type A injection in addition to routine treatment,and those in treatment group were treated with AFO on the basis of the interventions of observation group.Before treatment and at 1,3 and 6 months after treatment,clinic spasticity index (CSI) and Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA),Berg balance scale (BBS) and functional independence measure (FIM) were used to evaluate the efficacy of all groups.Results When compare the assessment results at 1 month after treatment with those before treatment,statistically significant difference in terms of scores of CSI,FMA and FIM were revealed in treatment group and observation group (P ＜ 0.05),but not in the control group (P ＞ 0.05).Within-group comparison with the results at 1 month after treatment,the scores of CSI at 3 and 6 months increased in control group and observation group,while decreased in treatment group(P ＜ 0.05),although the scores of FMA and FIM increased in all groups and the increase was statistically significant only in treatment group(P ＜ 0.05).Between-group comparison of the scores in CSI,FMA and FIM showed no significant difference between the observation and control groups(P ＞ 0.05).It was shown that the scores of BBS at 1,3,and 6 months improved continuously in all groups(P ＜0.05),the improvements in treatment group were significantly greater than that of observation group and control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Ultrasound-guided botulinum toxin type A injection with AFO could further improve lower limb muscle spasticity,and enhance motor,balance and activities of daily life for stroke patients.