Journal of rehabilitation research and development
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Clinical evaluation of Functional Electrical Therapy in acute hemiplegic subjects.
This paper describes a clinical randomized single-blinded study of the effects of Functional Electrical Therapy (FET) on the paretic arms of subjects with acute hemiplegia caused by strokes. FET is an exercise program that comprises voluntary arm movements and opening, closing, holding, and releasing of objects that are assisted by a neural prosthesis (electrical stimulation). FET consisted of a 30 min everyday exercise for 3 consecutive weeks in addition to conventional therapy. ⋯ The gains in FET groups were much larger compared with the gains in control groups. The speed of recovery in FET groups was substantially faster compared with the recovery rate in control groups during the first 3 weeks (treatment). The LFG subjects showed less improvement than the HFG in both the FET and control groups.