The effects of ankle joint muscle strengthening and proprioceptive exercise programs accompanied by functional electrical stimulation on stroke patients’ balance

[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of ankle joint muscle strengthening and proprioceptive exercises accompanied by functional electrical stimulation on stroke patients' balance ability. [Methods] For six weeks beginning in April 2015, 22 stroke patients receiving physical therapy at K Hospital located in Gyeonggi-do were divided into a functional electrical stimulation (FES), ankle proprioceptive exercise and ankle joint muscle strengthening exercise group (FPS group) of 11 patients and an FES and stretching exercise group (FS group) of 11 patients. The stimulation and exercises were conducted for 30 min per day, five days per week for six weeks. Balance ability was measured using a BioRescue and the Berg balance scale, functional reach test, and the timed up-and-go test were also used as clinical evaluation indices. Repeated measures ANOVA was conducted to examine differences between before the exercises and at three and six weeks after beginning the exercises within each group, and the amounts of change between the two groups were compared. [Results] In the comparison within each group, both groups showed significant differences between before and after the experiment in all the tests and comparison between the groups showed that greater improvement was seen in all values in the FPS group. [Conclusion] In the present study, implementing FES and stretching exercises plus ankle joint muscle strengthening and proprioceptive exercises was more effective at improving stroke patients balance ability than implementing only FES and stretching exercises.