RESUMEN
Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of adult disability, and up to 80% of stroke survivors undergo upper extremity motor dysfunction. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) and Robot-Assisted Therapy (RT) are used for upper limb stroke rehabilitation. Although CIMT and RT are different techniques, both are beneficial; however, their results must be compared. The objective is to establish the difference between RT and CIMT after a rehabilitation program for chronic stroke patients. Method: This is a randomized clinical trial, registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID number NCT02700061), in which patients with stroke received sessions of RT or CIMT protocol, combined with a conventional rehabilitation program for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was measured by Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) and Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Limb (FMA-UL). Activities of daily living were also assessed. Results: Fifty one patients with mild to moderate upper limb impairment were enrolled in this trial, 25 women and 26 men, mean age of 60,02 years old (SD 14,48), with 6 to 36 months after stroke onset. Function significantly improved regardless of the treatment group. However, no statistical difference was found between both groups as p-values of the median change of function measured by WMFT and FMA were 0.293 and 0.187, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that Robotic Therapy (RT) was not different from Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) regardless of the analyzed variables. There was an overall upper limb function, motor recovery, functionality, and activities of daily living improvement regardless of the interventions. At last, the combination of both techniques should be considered in future studies.
RESUMEN
Neurologic disorders such as stroke and cerebral palsy are leading causes of long-term disability and can lead to severe incapacity and restriction of daily activities due to lower and upper limb impairments. Intensive physical and occupational therapy are still considered main treatments, but new adjunct therapies to standard rehabilitation that may optimize functional outcomes are being studied. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that polarizes underlying brain regions through the application of weak direct currents through electrodes on the scalp, modulating cortical excitability. Increased interest in this technique can be attributed to its low cost, ease of use, and effects on human neural plasticity. Recent research has been performed to determine the clinical potential of tDCS in diverse conditions such as depression, Parkinson's disease, and motor rehabilitation after stroke. tDCS helps enhance brain plasticity and seems to be a promising technique in rehabilitation programs. A number of robotic devices have been developed to assist in the rehabilitation of upper limb function after stroke. The rehabilitation of motor deficits is often a long process requiring multidisciplinary approaches for a patient to achieve maximum independence. These devices do not intend to replace manual rehabilitation therapy; instead, they were designed as an additional tool to rehabilitation programs, allowing immediate perception of results and tracking of improvements, thus helping patients to stay motivated. Both tDSC and robot-assisted therapy are promising add-ons to stroke rehabilitation and target the modulation of brain plasticity, with several reports describing their use to be associated with conventional therapy and the improvement of therapeutic outcomes. However, more recently, some small clinical trials have been developed that describe the associated use of tDCS and robot-assisted therapy in stroke rehabilitation. In this article, we describe the combined methods used in our institute for improving motor performance after stroke.