Effectiveness of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) on upper limb motor functional recovery in people who

Abstract

Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term disability and economic misery around the world. Most stroke survivors recover their walking function during initial rehabilitation, but the majority of stroke patients are unable to use their upper extremities in their activities of daily living (ADL). Functional electrical stimulation (FES), a type of electrical stimulation that helps to contract weak muscles, can be used as an adjunct therapy to conventional care modalities for stroke survivors. This protocol is developed for determining the effectiveness of FES on upper limb motor recovery. Study design: Assessor blinded randomized control trial (RCT) design. Method: 30 subjects with stroke were randomly allocated to two groups. The control group or standard physiotherapy group (EX; N=15) received conventional physiotherapy like; stretching, isometric and isokinetic strengthening exercise etc. of upper limb for 8 weeks (5 days/week). The experimental group or exercise-FES group (EX+FES; N=15) received standard physiotherapy simultaneously with 30 minutes of FES on the wrist extensors muscles for 8 weeks (5days/week). Pre-tests was performed at baseline and post-test was performed after ten sessions and twenty sessions of the intervention. The patients were evaluated before and after treatment by using Modified Ashworth scale, Fugl-Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity (FMA-UE). Results: There was statistically significant improvement (p > 0.05) found in between group comparison of Functional electrical stimulation along with conventional physiotherapy and both group showed significant improvement in case of upper limb functional activity improvement (p > 0.01). Conclusion: The findings from this study may contribute to understanding the effectiveness of using FES in contributing to upper limb motor functional recovery post-stroke. This may contribute to a reduction of spasticity and improvement in functional use of the upper limb. Key words: Stroke, Functional Electrical Stimulation, Upper limb, Functional recovery