Physiotherapy Treatment Approaches on Functional Outcomes in Stroke Patient

According to recent evidence for adult stroke rehabilitation, no single physiotherapy treatment approach is superior to the other therapies in improving mobility of stroke patient [1-3]. In addition, a recent international guideline for adult stroke rehabilitation suggested that the effectiveness of neurophysiological approaches including Bobath, Brunnstrum and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation compared with other treatment approaches for motor retraining after acute stroke has not been established [2]. When no single approach is better than others, therapists move one step forward from individual treatment approach to mixture of approach in treating stroke patient [4,5]. In fact, most therapists already provide mixture of approaches during the rehabilitation process for each individual patient [6,7] but one may suppose that a different combination of treatment approaches will not generate significant differences in functional outcome. My retrospective study investigated the functional outcomes of different combination of physiotherapy treatment approaches for stroke patients [6]. By interviewing the therapists and reviewing their treatment records, we had a clear picture of selection and combination in treatment approaches that were used. And the study concluded that a different combination of treatment approaches may generate a different degree of functional outcome in stroke rehabilitation but the difference was not significant [6].