DIFFERENT STROKES
Someone has a stroke every 40 seconds in the US alone.
According to the National Stroke Association, full recovery occurs in only 10 percent of people who have a stroke, with 25 percent recovering with minor impairments. Approximately 40 percent experience moderate to severe physical and cognitive issues that end up requiring special care. And 10 percent of stroke patients end up in long-term care in a health facility or nursing home.
Traditionally, stroke rehabilitation in hospitals starts quickly, usually within 24 to 48 hours. And rehab can be a very frustrating experience for the patient. “If they’re in for their first stroke, we want to constantly monitor their vitals because sometimes physical therapy can be very frustrating and it can cause their blood pressure to go up,” says Josephine Lee, an occupational therapist at Memorial Care Long Beach Medical Center in Long Beach, CA.
Therapeutic exercises focus on range of motion, balance, motor control, strength and endurance. If the patient has suffered partial paralysis of an arm or leg (or both) and/or experiences lack of sensation in those limbs, the therapist works intensively to help them regain some control of the affected limb.
In the past, although rehabilitating the affected limb(s) was important, there was a tendency to focus more heavily on“compensatory training”—helping the patient learn to use the unaffected hand to accomplish daily tasks such as getting dressed, brushing teeth and combing hair—something that would get them more quickly functional at home.
But all that changed with the introduction of more effective rehabilitation therapies, and particularly one method known as constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT).
THE RESULTS, SAYS TAUB, WERE “ASTOUNDING.” USING CI
