Disclosures: Karen Baker, PhD: Neurofenix (Products/Services: No) (Consultant/Advisory Board)

Objective: The RHOMBUS (Rehabilitation via home based gaming exercise for the upper-limb post stroke ) study aimed to determine the safety, feasibility and acceptability of a novel digital therapy device, “NeuroBall™” for therapist-supervised home-based upper-limb rehabilitation post stroke.

Design: The study is a non-randomized intervention study with a parallel mixed methods process evaluation. The study examined the NeuroBall as an UL intervention to promote self-directed exercise of their UL over a seven-week intervention period.Setting : Stroke survivors were given the NeuroBall device to use independently in their own home in the London area, UK.Participants : Thirty stroke survivors (women n=14), median age 60, median 4.9 years post-stroke, with mild to severe upper limb impairment (FMA-UE scores between 8 and 63) who were no longer receiving in-patient or out-patient in-clinic therapy.

Interventions: Participants were trained to use NeuroBall at home for 7 weeks.

Main Outcome Measures: Therapy compliance was measured objectively by NeuroBall’s software; patient satisfaction and functional improvements were measured by postintervention questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Arm function was assessed by Fugl-Meyer Assessment – upper-limb (FMA–UL) Adverse events were monitored by the investigators.

Results: Participants exercised a median 17.4 hours (15,092 movements) during the 7-week intervention. NeuroBall had high acceptability (median enjoyment 4/5) and satisfaction levels (median QUEST score 36/40). Device-related adverse events were mild and short term (e.g. muscle soreness). Shoulder external rotation improved by 7.1° (95%CI 2.4-11.8, p=.049) and the incidence of shoulder pain at 8 weeks was lower than that at baseline (OR 0.45, 95%CI 0.24-0.83, p=0.010).Conclusions: Results suggest that NeuroBall is a safe, feasible, and acceptable intervention for independent home-based rehabilitation of the upper-limb post stroke; future work is required to determine efficacy in a larger randomized controlled trial.

Level of Evidence: Level IV

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/rehabilitation-using-a-novel-home-based-digital-therapy-device-for-the-upper-limb-post-stroke-an-intervention-study/