Stroke is a major cause of disability across the world. It can lead to major impairments ranging from inability to use the one half of the body, lack of movement, facial paralysis to learning difficulties, emotional and cognitive impairments. Stroke rehabilitation starts as early patient’s vitals becomes stable. The initial aim in hospital set up is to make patient aware of the affected side of body to create body awareness, initiate sitting and maintain correct positioning to prevent excessive muscle tone and contractures.
Rehabilitation team consists of a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, psychologist. Brain has the capacity to recover itself by the law of neuroplasticity but needs to be implemented in treatment techniques. At our clinic, we use combination of various successful treatment techniques like CIMT( Constraint Induced Movement therapy), MRP( Motor Relearning Therapy), mirror therapy, virtual reality games etc.
The degree of motor and sensory impairments depends on the extent of brain damage. In majority of cases, MCA( middle cerebral artery) is involved leading to hemiplegia on the opposite side of body. the patient may present:
- Cognitive and behavior problems
- Speech deficits
- learning difficulties
- visual impairments
- poor balance and coordination
- orientation loss
- weakness and loss of interest in recovery
Recovery of hemiplegia begins as early as first week and we believe, the earlier we start rehabilitation, the better is prognosis. Research has proved that patients who were made to sit and stand with supporting initial weeks, showed early recovery and were able to become independent in majority of functions.
Our brain has an amazing capacity to learn and using the principles of neuroplasticity we can re-train the brain to learn the lost functions. His concept has been a game changer and has given hope to even chronic patients of stroke/hemiplegia that they can recover and regain lost function. Proper rehabilitation and exercises can help a patient regain the lost functions and in severe cases, compensate for the lost function to regain the ability to perform activities of daily living.
Our aim is to make the patient independent as soon as possible. We focus on proper motor relearning by strengthening the weak muscles, improving sensory input to elicit better motor output and allow patient to make conscious decision to participate with the affected arm and leg in all activities rather than learning to live by compensating from the normal side. We use mirror therapy for the arm and leg training. In Mirror therapy, we place a mirror between affected side and normal side and ask patient to move his normal side , as patient looks in the mirror, it gives a signal to the brain that the affected side is moving and it contributes in regaining the lost hand function on that side.
Stroke rehabilitation also include retraining the lost functions of drinking water, eating food, dressing and all daily routine activities so that we can make patient thoroughly independent. Physiotherapy offers variety of exercises to improve patient’s muscle strength, muscle tone, balance and coordination. At our A& H Physiotherapy clinic, we offer neurological rehabilitation for around 1-2 hours per day. It is recommended to take at least 5 sessions per week. Stroke rehabilitation in a team work where we involve patient and his care givers also so that expectations are met and we can work in one direction to achieve same goals. We also offer online course for care givers to take care of the hemiplegic patient so that those who live in far off remote areas can also benefit from the step by step professional advise on each and every exercise.
For more details, contact us on 7087428243 or 8146758243
