ABSTRACT

Objective : Functional motor recovery was studied in subjects with a chronic hemiplegic hand before and after intensive treatment with electromyography-triggered, neuromuscular stimulation (EMG-stim).Methods : Subjects were assigned randomly to either the EMG-stim group (N=10) or control group (N=10). The EMG-stim group received 2 sessions (30min/session) per day, five days per week, for over 10 weeks(100 sessions in total) on the extensor digitorum communis. The control group did not receive any treatment. Their hand function was measured using an integrated EMG, ROM on a finger extension and Purdue pegboard test.Results : The EMGーstim group increased the IEMG, ROM, and the number of pegboards across the test session, whereas the control group maintained the same level of performance for both test sessions. The EMG-stim group demonstrated significant improvement in all dependent variables, compared with the control group (p<.05).Conclusion : We concluded that stroke patients receiving intensive EMG-stim showed functional hand motor recovery.