June 25, 2024
When it comes to stroke rehabilitation, comprehensive expert care makes all the difference in recovery. Physical Medicine & Neuro Rehabilitation specialists at Washington University Orthopedics lead a multidisciplinary approach tailored to each patient's unique needs at The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis. Our team combines advanced therapeutic technology, evidence-based research and compassionate care to give stroke survivors the highest quality of treatment and support. We are committed to helping patients regain their independence, improve their quality of life and encourage the hope that comes with comprehensive rehabilitation.
Alexandre Carter, MD, PhD, is a board-certified neurologist who specialized in rehabilitation for traumatic brain injuries and strokes. He provides insight on some of the technology used to support survivors in stroke recovery.
Body Support Makes High Intensity Training More Accessible
Current practice guidelines recommend High Intensity Gait Training (HIGT) after stroke to improve gait speed, walking distance, and balance. But what about those who cannot walk at all immediately after stroke? A computerized overhead track and harness system that offloads some of the patient’s weight and prevents falling helps patients overcome their fears and start their rehabilitation exercises sooner and at a higher intensity. The goal is to help patients regain strength, mobility and endurance more efficiently.
Biofeedback Makes Swallowing Easier
A specialized biofeedback system is used to help people who have difficulty swallowing, chewing and speaking. Biofeedback is the process of monitoring of a typically automatic bodily function to train someone to acquire voluntary control of that function. It works by detecting the electrical activity in the muscles of the throat, then using this information to guide exercises that strengthen the muscles of the throat and mouth. This training helps improve the ability to chew food, swallow safely, and speak more clearly.
Electrically Stimulating Muscle Function
Electrical stimulation is a therapy method in which small electric impulses are used to stimulate muscles that are weak or paralyzed. It can help to increase muscle strength, and range of motion and to lessen muscle spasms. It can be applied to single muscles or to groups of muscles, helping them move in a coordinated way. This can be used to retrain simple and more complex actions from improving postural control, to standing up, to bringing a weak arm and hand to the mouth for feeding.
Adapting to Spatial Neglect
Prism adaptation therapy is a treatment for people who experience spatial neglect, a condition where they have difficulty noticing things on the whole side of space opposite to the side of the brain affected by stroke. The therapy uses special lenses to shift the visual field in the opposite direction of the deficit while the patient practices reaching to objects under visual guidance. Over the course of many repetitions, patients learn to adjust to the shift and over time the repetition helps their brain adapt to noticing things on the side of deficit even when the prism lenses are removed.
Activity Targeting Deficiencies
To help improve vision, cognition, motor skills and balance, a versatile software-based tool with a large touch screen is used. The tool provides a variety of exercises and activities that are designed to challenge these specific areas, allowing therapists to assess progress and track improvements.