Improving rehabilitation after stroke


Every year more than 60,000 Australians suffer a stroke and this number will only increase with the aging population the growing epidemics of obesity, physical inactivity and diabetes.

Because there is no cure for stroke, the only method to improve functional movement is through rehabilitation. But we need to understand how rehabilitation works, and which patients will benefit most.We are studying patients who have weakness on one side of their body 3 – 12 months after a single stroke. We are comparing a new and promising strategy, Wii therapy, against the current best practice – constraint induced movement therapy in a randomised control trial.Both therapies have been shown to improve upper limb functional movement after an intense 2 week program of rehabilitation.

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