Exercising daily living activities in robot-mediated therapy.
Orsolya Peter, Ibolya Tavaszi, Andras Toth and 1 others
PMID 28603359WHAT IT FOUND
Chronic post-stroke patients showed better arm movement, grip function and independence scores after six weeks of robot-assisted daily-living training; spasticity did not change and Barthel Index did not clearly improve.
Key findings
01Twenty chronic post-stroke patients received twenty robot-assisted daily-living sessions over six weeks.
02Fugl-Meyer upper-extremity scores improved from 48.3 to 52.5 out of 66, Action Research Arm Test scores improved from 24.9 to 28.9 out of 57, and Functional Independence Measure scores improved from 117.6 to 118.4 out of 126.
03Spasticity did not change, Barthel Index improvement was not significant, and fourteen of twenty patients attended the three-month follow-up.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The trial gave the same therapy to all twenty patients and did not report a control group or randomisation. Only fourteen of twenty patients attended three-month follow-up, and the lost subjects were severe to moderately severe stroke patients. Participants were chronic post-stroke patients with relatively good function, and hand loss had to be no worse than moderate, so findings may not apply to more severely affected patients. An engineer was required in sessions, and physiotherapists were not trained to use the robot reset controls after some technical errors.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the score changes as proof that robot-assisted ADL therapy is better than conventional therapy. All twenty patients received the therapy, and the trial did not report a control group or randomisation.