Management of severe upper extremity deficits by task-oriented training combined with repeated stimulation

【Objective】 To explore the influences of the repeated eased task-oriented training(ROT) combined with repeated stimulation(RS) on upper limb ability for the stroke survivors with severe upper limb deficits.【Methods】 Stratified randomized sampling based on the age was used to assign the subjects to 3 rehabilitation groups: neurodevelopmental treatment(NDT),repeated eased task-oriented training(ROT),and repeated eased task-oriented training combined with repeated stimulation(ROT+RS).Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity assessment was applied to evaluate the upper limb ability.【Results】 Repeated measures analysis of variance(RM ANOVA) showed that significant differences of overall score of upper extremities,the domains of hand,wrist,coordination and speed were found between 3 groups.LSD indicated that the scores of the hand,wrist,coordination and speed of the subjects in(ROT+RS) were higher those of subjects in the NDT group and ROT group after interventions.And the total scores of the upper limb of the subjects in(ROT+RS) group were higher than those of subjects in the NDT group.However,the domain of the shoulder/ elbow/ forearm was not significantly different among groups.【Conclusions】 These findings demonstrated that ROT combined with RS is valuable to improve the motor ability of the upper limbs for stroke survivors with severe upper limb deficits,especially for the ability of hand,wrist,coordination and speed.