Things to Note in Stroke Rehabilitation

Stroke results in impairment of motor, cognitive and sensory/perceptual functions. As such, activities of daily living (ADL) after stroke can be affected. These affectations can persist for a long time depending on the extent of the affectation in the brain and rehabilitation. In fact, stroke has lately been recognized as a long term condition. Thus, stroke rehabilitation requires intensive time. When stroke occurred, the brain capitalizes heavily on learning to recover function; and the best way to induce such learning is known to be through task specific training. Effective stroke rehabilitation requires knowledge of the current available evidence base. However, to embrace the current available evidence, skills in information retrieval and critical appraisal of the literature are needed. Unfortunately, the skills of a say, entry level physiotherapists may not be adequate for them to be abreast of the evidence-based practice. Thus, there is a need to summarize the literature for such therapists to help them note some important issues in stroke rehabilitation.