The Effects of Balance Training with Functional Electrical Stimulation on Balance and Gait in patients with chronic stroke

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of balance training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) on balance and gait in patients with chronic stroke. Design: A cross over design Methods: Nine patients with stroke were recruited into this study. They were measuring their balance ability and gait ability. The intervention A included 4 weeks of balance training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) for 40 m/d, 3 d/wk. Intervention B included 4 weeks of balance training with placebo Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) for 40 m/d, 3 d/wk. Of the 9 patients who completed the study, 5 were randomly assigned to group A-B , and 4 to group B-A. The crossover occurred after 4 weeks. Results: Following are the specific results of balance training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) on patients with chronic stroke. First, patients who received treatment A showed improvement compared with patients who received treatment B in static balance. There were significant decreases in anterioposterior, mediolateral postural sway extension and velocity moment (p<0.05) with their eyes opened and closed conditions. Second, they had significantly improved in dynamic balance (p<0.05). Lastly, there were also improvement in their gait velocity and cadence (p<0.05). Conclusions: These findings suggest that, the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) combined with balance training more effectively improves the balance and gait ability, I m convinced that it could be actively used in clinics added to the conventional physical therapy in the future.