PHYSICAL THERAPY AFTER ISCHEMIC STROKE IN THE EARLY RECOVERY PERIOD

Abstract

Topicality. Vascular diseases of the brain, including stroke, have been on the list of the most importantmedical and social problems in recent years, as they cause great economic damage to society, causing long-term disability and mortality.The goal of the work is to analyze the quality of physical therapy programs for patients with different stroke severityand to substantiate their impact on functional recovery.Materials and methods. The following tests and scales were used for the examination: The Barthel scale and the 10-meter gait test. The results were statistically processed using the MedStat statistical package. In all cases, the valueof 0.05 was taken as the critical level of significance. The study was conducted at the public organization “Rehabilitation Complex Agape Ukraine”. The study involved 20 patients, including 8 men and 12 women, aged 50 to 70 years. All patients had suffered an ischemic stroke: the right (7 patients) and left (13 patients) sides of the body. Rehabilitationlasted from 2 to 6 weeks. The patients had sessions 3 times a day, 5 times a week, lasting 50 minutes each.Research results. The values of the 10-meter gait test in the early period of rehabilitation of male patients with lefthemisphere brain damage compared to the initial examination showed a noticeable improvement, as the final results showed values of 80% of the norm compared to the initial 60%. Still, we did not obtain a statistically significant difference in the indicators. Instead, in the group of men with right hemisphere lesions, the values differed at the level of p˂0.05. From thebeginning of therapeutic interventions (46% of the norm), high results were achieved that corresponded to a regular coursewithout disorders; the rate was 99% of the norm. In the group of female patients with left hemisphere lesions, the values of the 10-meter test differed at the significance level of p˂0.05. The test result improved from 30% of the norm to 58%. In thegroup of patients with right hemisphere lesions, the result was achieved only up to 39% of the norm compared to the initialvalues (20% of the norm). The study found that early physical therapy positively affects the restoration of functional mobility.The highest results on the Barthel scale (90–100 points) were achieved by 8 people out of 20. It was statistically proventhat there is a significant difference between the functional state at the time of admission and discharge. Most of the studyparticipants demonstrated progress in essential aspects of functioning during the recovery period.Conclusions. Early rehabilitation has a practical effect on restoring gait function and general functional status and increasing muscle strength of the upper and lower extremities in patients who have suffered an ischemic stroke.