This article represents the update of the European Stroke Initiative Recommendations for Stroke Management. These guidelines cover both ischaemic stroke and transient ischaemic attacks, which are now considered to be a single entity. The article covers referral and emergency management, Stroke Unit service, diagnostics, primary and secondary prevention, general stroke treatment, specific treatment including acute management, management of complications, and rehabilitation.

/pdf/guidelines-for-management-of-ischaemic-stroke-and-transient-1bttxqchx4.pdf

Guidelines for management of ischaemic stroke and transient ischaemic attack 2008

Loss of functional movement is a common consequence of stroke for which a wide range of interventions has been developed. In this Review, we aimed to provide an overview of the available evidence on interventions for motor recovery after stroke through the evaluation of systematic reviews, supplemented by recent randomised controlled trials. Most trials were small and had some design limitations. Improvements in recovery of arm function were seen for constraint-induced movement therapy, electromyographic biofeedback, mental practice with motor imagery, and robotics. Improvements in transfer ability or balance were seen with repetitive task training, biofeedback, and training with a moving platform. Physical fitness training, high-intensity therapy (usually physiotherapy), and repetitive task training improved walking speed. Although the existing evidence is limited by poor trial designs, some treatments do show promise for improving motor recovery, particularly those that have focused on high-intensity and repetitive task-specific practice.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/laneur/PIIS1474-4422(09)70150-4.pdf

Motor recovery after stroke: a systematic review

Purpose—The aim of this guideline is to provide a synopsis of best clinical practices in the rehabilitative care of adults recovering from stroke. Methods—Writing group members were nominated by th...

Guidelines for Adult Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery: A Guideline for Healthcare Professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association

Robot-assisted movement training compared with conventional therapy techniques for the rehabilitation of upper-limb motor function after stroke.

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the United States.1 The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that 15 000 veterans are hospitalized for stroke each year (VA HSR&D, 1997).

Forty percent of stroke patients are left with moderate functional impairments and 15% to 30% with severe disability.2 Effective rehabilitation interventions initiated early after stroke can enhance the recovery process and minimize functional disability. Improved functional outcomes for patients also contribute to patient satisfaction and reduce potential costly long-term care expenditures.

There are only 45 rehabilitation bed units (RBUs) in the VA today. Many veterans who have a stroke and are admitted to a VA Medical Center will find themselves in a facility that does not offer comprehensive, integrated, multidisciplinary care. In a VA rehabilitation field survey published in December 2000, more than half of the respondents reported that the “rehabilitative care of stroke patients was incomplete, fragmented, and not well coordinated” at sites lacking a RBU (VA Stroke Medical Rehabilitation Questionnaire Results, 2000).

In Department of Defense (DoD) medical treatment facilities, approximately 20 000 active-duty personnel and dependents were seen in 2002 for stroke and stroke-related diagnoses according to ICD-9 coding.3 Comprehensive treatment for stroke patients in DoD medical facilities is given primarily at medical centers. Smaller DoD community hospitals may have limited resources to see both inpatients and outpatients, relying more on the TRICARE network for ongoing stroke rehabilitation services.

A growing body of evidence indicates that patients do better with a well-organized, multidisciplinary approach to post-acute rehabilitation after a stroke.4–6 The VA/DoD Stroke Rehabilitation Working Group only focused on the post–acute stroke rehabilitation care.

Duncan and colleagues7 found that greater adherence to post-acute stroke rehabilitation guidelines was associated with improved patient outcomes and concluded “compliance …

/pdf/management-of-adult-stroke-rehabilitation-care-a-clinical-55zu3naq5e.pdf

Management of Adult Stroke Rehabilitation Care: a clinical practice guideline.

Background: The Ashworth Scale and the modified Ashworth Scale are the primary clinical measures of spasticity. A prerequisite for using any scale is a knowledge of its characteristics and limitations, as these will play a part in analysing and interpreting the data. Despite the current emphasis on treating spasticity, clinicians rarely measure it.Objectives: To determine the validity and the reliability of the Ashworth and modified Ashworth Scales.Study design: A theoretical analysis following a structured literature review (key words: Ashworth; Spasticity; Measurement) of 40 papers selected from the BIDS-EMBASE, First Search and Medline databases.Conclusions: The application of both scales would suggest that confusion exists on their characteristics and limitations as measures of spasticity. Resistance to passive movement is a complex measure that will be influenced by many factors, only one of which could be spasticity. The Ashworth Scale (AS) can be used as an ordinal level measure of resistance to pa...

A review of the properties and limitations of the Ashworth and modified Ashworth Scales as measures of spasticity

The aim of this paper is to review briefly our understanding of the phenomenon of spasticity based in current evidence.

Spasticity: Clinical perceptions, neurological realities and meaningful measurement

Background and Purpose—It has been suggested that cyclic neuromuscular electrical stimulation (ES) may enhance motor recovery after stroke. We have investigated the effects of ES of the wrist extensors on impairment of wrist function and on upper-limb disability in patients being rehabilitated after acute stroke. Methods—We recruited 60 hemiparetic patients (mean age, 68 years) 2 to 4 weeks after stroke into a randomized, controlled, parallel-group study comparing standard rehabilitation treatment with standard treatment plus ES of wrist extensors (3 times 30 minutes daily for 8 weeks). Isometric strength of wrist extensors was measured using a device built for that purpose. Upper-limb disability was assessed with use of the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). Observations were continued for 32 weeks (24 weeks after the finish of ES or the control intervention phase). Results—The change in isometric strength of wrist extensors (at an angle of 0° extension) was significantly greater in the ES group than the c...

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/01.STR.30.7.1384

Electrical Stimulation of Wrist Extensors in Poststroke Hemiplegia

Objective: To map out from the literature the nature, extent and effects of application of patient-centred goal setting in stroke rehabilitation practice.Design: Systematic review.Data sources: A search was conducted in the Cochrane (Wiley), AMED, Medline (EBSCO), Embase, Sports discuss, Medline (Ovid) and CINAHL databases. Secondary search based on references from the preliminary search was undertaken.Review methods: Quantitative and qualitative studies that included aspects of patient-centredness and goal setting in stroke patients from 1980 to June 2010 were collected. Studies were scrutinized for relevance and quality based on published methodology. The findings were synthesized by aggregating the themes from the qualitative studies and relating them to relevant findings from the quantitative studies.Results: Eighteen qualitative and eight quantitative and one mixed method study conducted in stroke rehabilitation services ranging from acute to community rehabilitation were included. Themes that emerge...

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0269215510394467

A systematic review and synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative evidence behind patient-centred goal setting in stroke rehabilitation

Background. The Tardieu Scale has been suggested a more appropriate clinical measure of spasticity than the Ashworth or modified Ashworth Scales. It appears to adhere more closely to Lance's defini...

Anand Pandyan

Papers

A review of the properties and limitations of the Ashworth and modified Ashworth Scales as measures of spasticity

Spasticity: Clinical perceptions, neurological realities and meaningful measurement

Electrical Stimulation of Wrist Extensors in Poststroke Hemiplegia

A systematic review and synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative evidence behind patient-centred goal setting in stroke rehabilitation

A systematic review of the Tardieu Scale for the measurement of spasticity.