Treadmill training with partial body weight support compared with physiotherapy in nonambulatory hemiparetic patients.

Background And Purpose: Treadmill training with partial body weight support is a new and promising therapy in gait rehabilitation of stroke patients. The study intended to investigate its efficiency compared with gait training within regular physiotherapy in nonambulatory patients with chronic hemiparesis.

Methods: An A-B-A single-case study design compared treadmill training plus partial body weight support (A) with physiotherapy based on the Bobath concept (B) in seven nonambulatory hemiparetic patients.

Botulinum toxin treatment for lower limb extensor spasticity in chronic hemiparetic patients.

Twelve chronic hemiparetic outpatients with pronounced lower limb extensor spasticity were injected with 400 units of botulinum toxin A, EMG guided into the soleus, tibialis posterior, and both heads of the gastrocnemius muscles. Botulinum toxin A caused a definite reduction of plantar flexor spasticity, in 10 patients two weeks after the injection, as assessed by the Ashworth scale. Four of the patients were able to achieve active dorsiflexion of their affected ankle.

Gait outcome in ambulatory hemiparetic patients after a 4-week comprehensive rehabilitation program and prognostic factors.

Background And Purpose: Although gait training is prominent in the rehabilitation of hemiparetic stroke patients, little is known about its outcome and prognostic factors in mildly affected patients. We therefore intended to assess gait in ambulatory stroke patients before and after a 4-week inpatient rehabilitation program based on the neurodevelopmental technique.

Methods: We measured vertical ground reaction forces by force plates in 148 stroke patients.

Restoration of gait in nonambulatory hemiparetic patients by treadmill training with partial body-weight support.

The effect of a treadmill training with partial body-weight support was investigated in nine nonambulatory hemiparetic patients with a mean poststroke interval of 129 days. They had received regular physiotherapy within a comprehensive stroke rehabilitation program at least 3 weeks before the treadmill training without marked improvement of their gait ability. After 25 additional treadmill training sessions scoring of functional performance and conventional gait analysis showed a definite improvement: gait ability, assessed by the Functional Ambulation Category (0 to 5) improved with a mean of 2.

[Double blind biometric study on postoperative effects of analgesics].

A double blind trial to study the effects of analgetics was carried out in patients suffering from pain after third molar osteotomy. 204 patients were evaluated after random allocation to treatment with paracetamol 500 mg and paracetamol 500 mg plus codeine 30 mg. Statistical evaluation revealed a tendency for better analgesia using the combination of paracetamol and codeine.