Early Rehabilitation Program For Hemiplegic Stroke Patients: Useful Training Conducted By Patient Families

To investigate the effectiveness of an early stroke rehabilitation program, we compared the new rehabilitation program planned by a physiatrist with the conventional program. The patients were divided into two groups: patients undergoing the special training program, which was implemented with the help of family members trained to provide rehabilitation in the ward (Family-exercise group), and patients in the early rehabilitation program without the family-exercise program (Conventional group). As a result, there was no difference in each patients in step of the rehabilitation program such as the standing and gait exercise between the family-exercise and conventional groups. The Barthel indexes at the start of physiotherapy were 9.2+/-11.7 and 7.4+/-12.1 for the family-exercise and the early groups, respectively, whereas at discharge, corresponding values were 84.5+/-15.1 and 52.6+/-33.2. Our findings suggested that stroke patients in aute phase need rehabilitation intervention from the family's cooperation with the patient is as an essential factor.