Objective
To investigate the effects of at-home rehabilitation on the functional improvement of hemiplegic upper limbs by playing electronic musical instruments in stroke patients.
Design
Before-and-after trial, Experimental clinical research.
Setting
Visiting a university hospital as an outpatient.
Participants
Twelve cases of hemiplegic patients, averaging 56±6.4 years old, having suffered brain stroke and living at home in which 8 to 270 months have passed since onset.
Interventions
An guitar type electrophone and electronic drum were rented out to the homes of the patients as electronic musical instruments; instructions were given to play these instruments once a week as an outpatient for 3 weeks each for a total of 6 weeks, and patients were trained to play the instruments using their paralyzed upper limbs. A set piece was specified weekly, and practice at home of at least 30 minutes a day was imposed. On that basis, changes in motor function and muscle spasms were evaluated.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Fugl-Meyer Assessment of motor function items of the upper limb (on a scale of 0 to 66) and Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS).
Results
The Fugl-Meyer Assessment of motor function items of the upper limb improved from an average of 36.17 prior to the experiment to 41.67 following the experiment (p<0.01). Although temporal improvement was confirmed in muscle spasms following the experiment, there was no change in MAS throughout the entire training period.
Conclusions
Rehabilitation of the paralyzed upper limbs by playing music have a good effect for the paralytic improvement of the stroke patients at home.
Key Words
Music therapy, Stroke patients, At-home rehabilitation, Hemiplegic upper limb
Disclosure(s)
None Disclosed.
Article Info
Publication History
Poster 30
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc.
