Effect of Newly Developed Balance Training System in Patients with Stroke

摘要

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of newly developed balance training system (I balance S) in chronic hemiplegic patients. Thirty chronic (more than 6 months) hemiplegic patients who were capable of standing without assistive devices participated in this study. The study started with "preevaluation" such as Berg balance test (BBT), 10 m walking test (10mWT) and Functional reach test (FRT). After preevaluations, balance training was applied for 4 weeks. And then, three phases of postevaluation were performed, just after (post 1), 1 week (post 2), and 4 weeks (post 3) after treatment. All subjects showed a significant improvement in BBT (52.19±3.87 (pre), 53.12±3.14 (post 1), 53.38±2.99 (post 2), 53.65±2.90 (post 3)), 10m WT (9.93±2.36 sec, 9.56±2.53 sec, 9.30±2.25 sec, 9.16±2.62 sec, respectively) and FRT (19.33±4.99 cm, 21.55±4.57 cm, 21.98±4.69 cm, 21.83±4.84 cm, respectively) after training compared to the status before training. The hemiplegic patients trained by I balance S showed a significant improvement in BBT, 10mWT and FRT after training. In addition, this effect lasted for 4 weeks. Therefore, newly developed balance training system (I balance S) is considered to be a useful tool for balance training of chronic hemiplegic patients.