A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Botulinum Toxin Treatment Combined with Robot-Assisted Therapy, Mirror Therapy, or Active Control Treatment in Patients with Spasticity Following Stroke

Jen Wen Hung, Chu Ling Yen*, Ku Chou Chang, Wei Chi Chiang, I. Ching Chuang, Ya Ping Pong, Wen Chi Wu, Ching Yi Wu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Effects of the combined task-oriented trainings with botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) injection on improving motor functions and reducing spasticity remains unclear. This study aims to investigate effects of 3 task-oriented trainings (robot-assisted therapy (RT), mirror therapy (MT), and active control treatment (AC)) in patients with stroke after BoNT-A injection. Thirtyseven patients with chronic spastic hemiplegic stroke were randomly assigned to receive RT, MT, or AC following BoNT-A injection over spastic upper extremity muscles. Each session of RT, MT, and AC was 75 min, 3 times weekly, for 8 weeks. Outcome measures were assessed at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up, involving the Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS), Motor Activity Log (MAL), including amount of use (AOU) and quality of movement (QOM), and arm activity level. All 3 combined treatments improved FMA, MAS, and MAL. The AC induced a greater effect on QOM in MAL at the 3-month follow-up than RT or MT. All 3 combined trainings induced minimal effect on arm activity level. Our findings suggest that for patients with stroke who received BoNT-A injection over spastic UE muscles, the RT, MT, or AC UE training that followed was effective in improving motor functions, reducing spasticity, and enhancing daily function.

Original languageEnglish
Article number415
JournalToxins
Volume14
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 06 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • conventional rehabilitation
  • mirror therapy
  • motor function
  • robot-assisted training
  • stroke rehabilitation
  • upper extremity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Botulinum Toxin Treatment Combined with Robot-Assisted Therapy, Mirror Therapy, or Active Control Treatment in Patients with Spasticity Following Stroke'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this