Ann Rehabil Med.  2019 Feb;43(1):96-105. 10.5535/arm.2019.43.1.96.

Combined Therapy With Functional Electrical Stimulation and Standing Frame in Stroke Patients

• Lee JB
• Kim SB
• Lee KW
• Lee JH
• Park JG
• Lee SJ

• KMID: 2440957
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.2019.43.1.96

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of combination functional electrical stimulation (FES) and standing frame training on standing balance in stroke patients.
METHODS
Patients who had hemiparesis and postural instability after stroke were randomly assigned to one of the two groups; study group underwent FES on the quadriceps and tibialis anterior muscle simultaneously with standing balance training. The control group received standing frame training and FES separately. Both the groups received their respective therapies for 3 weeks. Stability index in Biodex Balance master system, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), manual muscle test, the Korean version of Modified Barthel Index, and Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination were used to evaluate the effects of the treatment.
RESULTS
In total, 30 patients were recruited to the study group and 30 to the control group. Three weeks after treatment, both the groups showed improvement in postural stability scores and physical and cognitive functions. When changes in postural stability were compared between the groups, the study group showed more significant improvement than the control group with regards to the scores of BBS and the stability indices.
CONCLUSION
In this study, we found the therapeutic effectiveness of combined therapy of FES and standing frame in subacute stroke patients. The presented protocol is proposed as time-saving and can be applied easily in the clinical setting. Thus, the proposed combined therapy could be a useful method for improving standing balance in subacute stroke patients.

Keyword

Stroke; Standing frame; Functional electrical stimulation; Standing balance; Rehabilitation

MeSH Terms

Cognition
Electric Stimulation*
Humans
Methods
Paresis
Rehabilitation
Stroke*

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1. (A) The study group received combination treatment (standing frame training and FES simultaneously) and (B) the control group received conventional treatment (standing frame training without FES and FES separately). FES, functional electrical stimulation.

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  Fig. 2. Flowchart for enrollment of the subjects. MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination; FES, functional electrical stimulation.

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