Stroke Treatments

We’re here today to talk about stroke and technology in this population, a stroke happens when a blood vessel is either blocked or burst and the brain then is not getting oxygen to it and as a result of that, different parts of the brain actually die and when parts of the brain die, that can result in decreased movement in different body parts, a physical therapist actually starts very soon with a patient after they have a stroke and we are the experts in mobility and motion and therefore we have a very big impact on the patients through their recovery process.

When we see the patient for the first time in the hospital, what we do is we look at what their needs are, we look at what their symptoms and impairments are and we develop a plan that will help them recover, that plan starts in the hospital, it continues with them and it changes as they go through the recovery process, the ultimate goal for that patient is to return to their home setting in the highest level of independence and safety, one of the newest technologies out there is a system that was actually developed here at National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) and that’s the zero g and it was developed by one of our researchers.

The zero is a balanced and over ground walking system and it provides body weight support as the individual is walking in the system, the therapist uses it to help in many different activities and those activities can be used for walking, for walking over objects, getting up and down from the ground and also a person can even practice getting up and down stairs, the importance of that as well is that we can challenge the patient earlier and we can keep them in a very safe environment as we are challenging them.

Another type of technology that is used in the area of stroke is the YNS: three hundred and it is an electrical stimulation device that is used to help people walk as a result of having a neurological injury such as stroke or traumatic brain injury and many others as well, these technologies help a patient get up sooner, it helps them do things that are more challenging for them, research does show that the sooner you get someone up in walking, the faster they will recover.