Effect of rehabilitation robot combined with action observation therapy on rehabilitation of upper limb motor function in stroke patients
Objective To explore the effect of rehabilitation robot combined with action observation therapy on the rehabilita-tion of upper limb motor function in patients with stroke.Methods A total of 46 patients with initial stroke(disease course<3 months)selected from Dalian Rehabilitation and Recuperation Center from April to December 2022 were randomly divided into control group(n=23)and observation group(n=23).Both groups received routine rehabilitation treatment and upper limb robot-as-sisted therapy.Before the training of robot-assisted therapy,the observation group watched the videos about activities and movements of upper limb,and then were asked to imagine their affected upper limb to complete these activities and movements.The control group watched the videos of geometric figures,letters and others without body or animals.Before treatment and 4 weeks after treat-ment,they were evaluated with simplified Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremities(FMA-UE),Motor Assessment Scale-Upper Extremities(MAS-UE)and modified Barthel Index(MBI).Results Before treatment,there were no significant differences in FMA-UE,MAS-UE and MBI scores between the two groups(P>0.05).After treatment,FMA-UE,MAS-UE and MBI significantly increased in both groups(P<0.001).After treatment,FMA-UE(P=0.039),MAS-UE(P=0.027)and MBI(P=0.004)in the observation group were higher than those in the control group,and the differences were statistically significant.Conclusions Re-habilitation robot combined with action observation therapy can further improve the upper limb motor function and the ability of daily living of stroke patients.