A prospective study on the effects of Ayurvedic massage in post-stroke patients

ABSTRACT

Background: Few stroke patients have reported improvements after Ayurvedic massage. Unfortunately,there is a dearth of indexed literature to support the use of this in rehabilitation.Objectives: To objectively measure the differences between patients with stroke who received Ayurvedicmassage in addition to standard Physiotherapy (PT) versus those who received only standard PT.Materials and methods: The study was a prospective case control study, retrospectively analysed. Thesetting was a tertiary level hospital with neuro-rehabilitation unit. Fifty-two patients undergoing acuteinpatient rehabilitation were prospectively followed post stroke. They were self-selected one monthfrom the event for Ayurvedic massage with regular PT or PT alone. Twenty five received Ayurvedicmassage with PT and twenty seven received only PT. All participants completed treatment. Informationrelated to age, gender, National Institute of Health Stroke Scale result, number of co-morbidities, andwhether cases were deemed simple or complex were taken at baseline. All patients received 6 hours ofphysical therapy averaged over a week. Massage was delivered daily for a total of 10 sessions followed bysteam application.Results: Patients were categorized as simple or complicated stroke based on events prior to rehabilitation. Both simple and complicated patients who received Ayurvedic massage had lower MAS and needfor antispastic drugs, achieved standing with minimal assistance sooner, and had better locomotion atdischarge. All these differences were significant.Conclusion: Utilizing Ayurvedic massage in post stroke patients with flaccidity can promote fasterstanding with minimal assistance and lead to less need for antispastic drugs at discharge.© 2018 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).