Effects of Functional Electrical Stimulation on the Balance of Hemiplegic Patients

기능적 전기자극 치료가 편마비 환자의 균형에 미치는 영향

  • Kim, Yong-Cheol (Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School, SahmYook University) ;
  • Lee, Suk-Min (Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School, SahmYook University) ;
  • Song, Chang-Ho (Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School, SahmYook University)
  • 김용철 (삼육대학교 대학원 물리치료학과) ;
  • 이석민 (삼육대학교 대학원 물리치료학과) ;
  • 송창호 (삼육대학교 대학원 물리치료학과)
  • Published : 2004.09.01

Abstract

This study, adopting the pretest-post test experimental study, is designed to find out how the functional electrical stimulation makes effect on the balance of a patient with spasticity of the ankle plantarflexor muscle caused by hemiplegic after stroke. The 46 subjects for this study were randomly sampled out of the patients who were hospitalized from September 1, 2003 to November 30, 2003 in H sanitarium in Yangpyung. The patients were with spasticity of the ankle plantarflexor muscle caused by hemiplegic after stroke and able to walk without supporting implements. The purpose of the study is firstly to analyze the change of ROM, FRTof a patient with spasticity of the ankle plantarflexor muscle when the functional electrical stimulation is applied and secondly to find out how the sex, age, height, weight, part of the diagnosis, duration of pain, experience of relapse and getting hurt from a fall of a patient make effect on the change. The experimental group for the study is divided into two to compare the differences of the effect. The exercising treatment only was performed for the conrtol group, and the functional electrical stimulation to the ankle dorsiflexor muscle as well as the exercising treatment was applied to the experimental group. The ROM test was performed to check the range of motion of the ankle with a double armed universal goniometer. The test was done 3 times to take an average. FRT were performed to check the balance. The statistical test was conducted using the SPSS 10.0/PC program by means of the following methods: χ2-test and t-test for testing homogeneity between the groups; paired t-test, independent sample t-test, F-test, and two-way ANOVA for analyzing the changes before and after the treatment. The levels of statistical significance of all the data were maintained at p<.05. According to the test, ROM has more decreased in experimental group than in control group when the functional electrical stimulation was applied only to the experimental group. However, the significant statistic difference was not shown (p=.059). FRT showed remarkable differences in the experimental group compared to the control group, showing the significant statistic difference (p=.000). On the one hand, the change of ROM, FRT related with the sex, age, height, weight, part of the diagnosis, and experience relapse was a meaningless minimum value. The change of ROM related to the duration of pain and the experience of falling down was also meaningless. However, FRT showed significant statistic difference (p<.05). According to the test above, the application of functional electrical stimulation to a patient with spasticity of the ankle dorsiflexor muscle caused by hemiplegic after stroke makes significant effect on the balance of a patient, but the result has nothing with the sex, age, height, weight, part of the diagnosis, duration of pain, experience of relapse and getting hurt from a fall of a patient. However, it is regarded to give contribution to the balance improvement of a patient. Therefore, this study expects to be a valuable clinical material for a patient with spasticity.

Keywords