Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of robot-assisted therapy to improve upper extremity function in subacute stroke.
Method : This study was a retrospective study using the medical record. The subjects were 20 patients who were diagnosis with stroke within 6 months. All patients received general rehabilitation intervention during the experimental period and robot-assisted therapy and task-oriented training. Robot assisted therapy was composed of 1 sessions, 1hour per person and task-oriented training was same. For result analysis, descriptive statistics, paired t-test were used.
Results : After intervention, all participants got 3D motion analysis about reaching. For the result, there was statistically significant improvement in smoothness in robot assisted therapy(p<.05). there was no statistically significant difference between robot assisted therapy and task-oriented training in speed, time. In this result, we knew the robot assisted therapy can short term effect in elbow joint during arm reaching.
Conclusion : Robot assisted therapy is considered as alternative choice in clinical occupational therapy for improving upper extremity function in subacute stage stroke patients.