Time course of recovery during robotic neurorehabilitation of the upper limb in sub-acute and chronic stroke patients

Abstract

The high number of patients involved every year in stroke rehabilitation interventions calls for urgent understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying both spontaneous and rehabilitation-induced recovery. The aim of this study was to analyze how the time since the acute event of patients may influence the motor recovery processes during robot-assisted rehabilitation of the upper limb. The study was conducted in two groups of patients after stroke in Sub-acute (n=10) and Chronic (n=10) phase who underwent robot-assisted rehabilitation of the upper limb. After training, both groups improved their level of impairment and quality of movement thus indicating effectiveness of the rehabilitation intervention. The preliminary analysis of the time course of recovery evidenced a specific pattern of recovery in the two groups of patients.