Effects of sling exercise on postural sway in post-stroke patients.
Joo Young Lee, Soo Young Kim, Jun Seob Yu and 2 others
PMID 28878464WHAT IT FOUND
Post-stroke patients who added six weeks of sling exercise to usual rehabilitation showed improvement in standing sway measures compared with those doing conventional cycling or gait training plus usual rehabilitation.
The study was small, and total exercise time was not controlled.
Key findings
01Eighteen post-stroke patients were randomly assigned to sling exercise (10) or control exercise (8).
02All postural sway measurements improved from before to after training in the sling exercise group, while none of the postural measurements changed in the control exercise group.
03All postural sway parameters in the sling exercise group except the mediolateral distance parameter showed more significant improvement than the control exercise group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 18 patients were studied, with 10 in sling exercise and 8 in control exercise. The patients had to stand, have muscle strength greater than grade 2, spasticity less than 1, and MMSE-K scores of at least 24, so they were a selected group. The total amount of exercise was not controlled thoroughly between groups, so extra exercise time may have influenced results. The paper followed patients for 6 weeks, and it states long-term effects need further study. The text says K-MBI improvement was greater in sling exercise, but Table 2 lists mean changes of 3.5 ± 4.1 for sling exercise and 8.0 ± 7.9 for control exercise. The study only focused on balance, so comprehensive outcomes were not assessed. The paper does not describe blinding of patients, therapists, or assessors.
Declared interests
The supplied text reports no funding or conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that sling exercise alone improves balance for all post-stroke patients. It was added to daily multidisciplinary rehabilitation, total exercise time was not controlled, and the sample was small and included patients with relatively good performance.