Effect of crawling exercise with wrist-hand orthosis in upper limb after stroke / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effect of crawling exercise with wrist-hand orthosis on the upper limb af- ter stroke.Methods Forty-two stroke patients were divided randomly into an experimental group (n=21) and a control group (n=21).Both groups received routine therapy.Meanwhile the experimental group received crawling exercise with wrist-hand orthosis on the affected upper limb for 60 min once daily,5 days a week for 8 weeks.All the subjects were assessed by using the FMA test,the Ashworth scale and the Barthel index before and after treatment. Results There was no different between the two groups in the three tests before the treatment.After 6 weeks of treat- ment,significant different was found between the two groups with regard to the results of all the tests,with the experi- mental group better than the control group.Conclusion The crawling exercise with wrist-hand orthosis on is more effective than the routine therapy for the function of the upper limb in stroke patients.