Effect of Sensorimotor Integration on Balance and Gait in Chronic Stroke Patients

Balance impairment in patients with stroke hemiparesis is frequently related to deficits of central integration of afferent inputs (somatosensory, visual, vestibular). Abnormal interactions between the three sensory systems involved in balance could be the source of abnormal postural reactions in these patients. The ability to analyze, compare, and select the pertinent sensory information to prevent falls can be impaired in hemiparetic stroke patients. A deficit of sensorimotor integration is now acknowledged as a major factor in balance disability after stroke. No general physiotherapy approach has been proven to be superior for promoting balance recovery from stroke. So the main purpose of the study was to study efficacy of sensorimotor integration approach along with conventional physiotherapy program for improving balance and gait in chronic stroke patients.

To Assess the Efficacy of Sensorimotor Integration on Balance & Gait in Stroke hemiparesis.

30 subjects with chronic stroke who met with the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into Group A and Group B. Group A was treated with Conventional training & Group B with Sensorimotor Integration.

There was significant improvement seen within both the groups on Berg Balance (p<0.0001), Dynamic Gait Index (p<0.0001), 10 m walk test (p=0.0001) and Modified CTSIAB (all conditions) (p<0.0001).

When both the groups were compared using unpaired t-test sensorimotor group showed significant improvements in all outcome measures (p<0.0001) except for MCTSIAB conditions 1 and 2 where the difference was not statistically significant.

(Condition 1; p>0.999)

(Condition 2; p=0.8562)

In the absence of sensory training, very limited changes were observed for both static and dynamic balance tasks. Thus it could be explained that sensorimotor integration training is one of the novel treatment which can have an additive effect along with the conventional training for balance.