Disclosures: Matthew Tay, MRCP: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To establish functional gains of patients with severe stroke who underwent combinatory robotic assisted gait training (RAGT) during acute inpatient rehabilitation.

Design: Case-control study with 1:2 cases to controls ratio. Setting : Single tertiary-care rehabilitation center. Participants : 150 patients with severe stroke.

Interventions: Combinatory RAGT of 10-15 sessions in additional to conventional physiotherapy.

Main Outcome Measures: Our outcomes measures were the Functional Ambulation Category (FAC), Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Fugl Meyer Assessment of Lower Extremity (LeFMA) scores. In addition, we investigated the proportion of patients who were able to wean off nasogastric tubes or indwelling urinary catheters after inpatient rehabilitation.

Results: Measuring the FIM motor gain at discharge, patients who had undergone RAGT (∆mean score in RAGT group ± SD; 19.8 ± 13.3) had significantly higher FIM motor gain (p < 0.001) compared to conventional therapy (∆mean score in conventional group ± SD; 10.2 ±10.5). The RAGT cohort also had a higher discharge FIM (p < 0.001). There was a significantly higher proportion (p < 0.001) of patients in the RAGT group who were able to wean off their nasogastric tube (21/28) compared to the conventional group (13/45). However, no significant differences were found in the discharge FAC scores, LeFMA scores or the proportion of patients who could wean off indwelling urinary catheters between both groups. Conclusions: Patients with severe stroke may benefit from meaningful functional gains and improvement in dysphagia after combinatory RAGT. However, RAGT may not produce superior ambulatory outcomes in this group of patients in the early phase of rehabilitation.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/early-electromechanical-assisted-gait-training-in-hemi-paretic-stroke-patients/