Abstract
Ranked as the second leading cause of death and the primary factor to adult disability worldwide, stroke has become a global epidemic problem and burden. As a developing country, Malaysia still faces challenges in providing ideal rehabilitation services to individuals with physical disabilities including stroke survivors. Conventional post-stroke care is often delivered in a team-based approach and involves several disciplines, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, depending on the nature and severity of the deficits. Robots are potential tools for stroke rehabilitation as they can enhance existing conventional therapy by delivering a precise and consistent therapy of highly repetitive movements. In addition, robot-assisted physiotherapy could facilitate the effectiveness of unsupervised rehabilitation and thus, may reduce the cost and duration of therapist-assisted rehabilitation. Research on robot-assisted physiotherapy for stroke in Malaysia is slowly coming into the limelight in the past two decades. This review explores the effectiveness of robot-assisted physiotherapy particularly in improving motor functions of stroke survivors in Malaysia.
Highlights
Ranked as the second leading cause of death and the primary factor to adult disability worldwide, stroke has become a global epidemic problem and burden
Stroke can be classified into ischaemic stroke and haemorrhagic stroke, while brief occurrences of neurological dysfunction resulting from focal cerebral ischaemia that are not associated with permanent cerebral infarction are classified as transient ischaemic stroke [7]
Various ongoing studies have proclaimed that the presentation of automated gadgets into the field of stroke recovery with numerous reports depicted the adequacy of robot-assisted treatment for improving motor and ambulatory capacity in patients with stroke
Summary
‘Stroke of God’s hand’ was the first lay term used for stroke since 1599, attributing to the sudden onset of symptoms to an acute event caused by a sudden interruption of blood supply to the brain [1–2]. Among the limited number of studies, three randomised controlled trials testing robot-assisted physiotherapy that used virtual reality (VR) for improving upper limb function of stroke patients were selected for review [27–29]. 18 www.mjms.usm.my significant results may imply that the integration of VR games as an adjunct to standard physiotherapy by substituting a part of the time with VR games can effectively maintain physical function outcomes and daily living activities among stroke patients as compared to standard physiotherapy alone. It was evident that rehabilitation robots such as CR2-Haptic and iRest contributed to significant improvement in rehabilitating upper limb motor function of arm and wrist as compared to VR intervention based on similar assessment tools used. The introduction of robotics in the health sector could reduce job opportunities for medical personnel which include conventional physiotherapists [35]
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