A comparison of overlapping effects of therapeutic interventions to improve upper limb spasticity and function in stroke patients

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is a cerebrovascular disease that involves cerebral haemorrhage caused by the rupture of blood vessels and cerebral infarction due to blood clots and emboli, which result in neurological symptoms and disorders. Even though cer-ebrovascular diseases do not end up in death, they leave serious severe aftereffects in most cases, thus inflicting considerable social and economic losses. Aim and Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the overlapping effects of low-extracorporeal shock wave therapy and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation treatment on stroke patients. In this study, 24 stroke patients who were randomly divided into an experimental group (n=12), who would receive extracorporeal shock wave therapy before proprioceptive neu-romuscular facilitation treatment, and a control group (n=12), who would not receive extracorporeal shock wave therapy before proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation treatment. Result: This study used the modified Ashworth scale to assess stroke patients’ spasticity. Korean version of the Fugl-Meyer as-sessment, the Korean version of the Modified Barthel index, and action research arm test are an evaluation item for measuring the function. In a comparison of the therapeutic effects on the two groups following the modified Ashworth scale and the Korean version of the Fugl-Meyer assessment, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups. However, the Korean version of the Modified Barthel index and the action research arm test showed significant differences between groups. Conclusion: In conclusion, the overlapping effect of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation treatment and extracorporeal shock wave therapy improved the upper limb function of stroke patients.