Indian Journal of Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy - An International Journal
  • Year: 2019
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 4

Effects of Bilateral Upper Limb Task Training on Upper Limb Function in Acute Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial

1Assistant Professor, Florence college of Physiotherapy, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

2Associate Professor, Department of Neuro Physiotherapy, Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy, NITTE (Deemed to be University), Medical Sciences Complex, Deralakatte, Mangaluru (D.K.), Karnataka, India

*Corresponding Author Dr. Purusotham Chippala, Associate Professor, Department of Neuro Physiotherapy, Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy, NITTE (Deemed to be University), Medical Sciences Complex, Deralakatte, Mangaluru (D.K.), Karnataka, India Telephone/Mobile: +91 9916460185, e-mail: chippala_puru@nitte.edu.in

Online published on 21 November, 2019.

Abstract

To determine the effect of bilateral upper limb task training on a hemiplegic upper limb in early rehabilitation after stroke.

Single blinded, Randomized controlled trial.

100 stroke patients were screened for eligibility. 30 patients were eligible and randomized equally into intervention group and control group. Both the groups received standard care treatment for 30 minutes once a day. Intervention group received bilateral upper limb task training for 20 minutes once a day for a week with 10 repetitions of 2 sets of each task.

The action research arm test, nine-hole peg test and functional independence measures. Measurements were taken on admission and discharge.

Difference (discharge-admission) in ARAT, FIM were higher for intervention group (16.400.72, 35.3310.21) and Difference (admission-discharge) in NHPT was higher for intervention group (12.667.13). Between the group comparison of ARAT, NHPT were not found to be statistically significant (p=.608, p=.787) whereas FIM (p=.001) is considered to be highly significant statistically. Highly significant effect size of 1.335 is obtained for FIM score, but a non-significant effect size of 0.189, 0.009 is obtained for ARAT and NHPT scores respectively.

Bilateral upper limb training shows improvement in achieving functional independence in the activities of daily living, but no significant improvement in the grasp, grip, pinch, gross movements and fine dexterity.

Keywords

Bilateral upper limb training, stroke, early rehabilitation. Functional independence measure (FIM), Action research arm test (ARAT), Nine-hole peg test (NHPT)