Effects of robot-assisted therapy on upper extremity function and activities of daily living in hemiplegic patients: A single-blinded, randomized, controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Many robots can induce passive movements and passive resistance movements to facilitate recovery of upper-extremity function, but it is rare to find robots that can also enable active resistance movements. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of robot-assisted therapy on upper-extremity function and the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia. METHODS: Thirty patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups, with 15 patients in each group. All subjects underwent general occupational therapy consisting of five 30-min sessions per week for 8 weeks, in addition to 30 min of robot-assisted therapy for the experimental group and 30 additional min of general occupational therapy for the control group for each session. RESULTS: Both the experimental and control groups showed a statistically significant increase in post-treatment Fugl-Meyer assessment and modified Barthel index scores compared to the pre-treatment scores. Intergroup comparisons revealed that the experimental group showed a statistically significant greater increase in scores for all assessments than the control group did (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The findings from this study showed that combining robot-assisted therapy with general occupational therapy may enhance upper-extremity function and the ability to perform ADL in patients with stroke-induced hemiplegia compared to those obtained with general occupational therapy alone.