PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF THE HEMIPLEGIC PATIENT IN GENERAL PRACTICE

Abstract

During the past several decades spectacular advances in the preventive and therapeutic aspects of medicine have resulted in a greater life expectancy for the general population. Physicians have been faced with the responsibility of caring for an ever increasing number of patients with chronic disease processes common to later life. Cerebrovascular lesions with their resultant motor disability are prominent among this group; yet, for the most part, the problems of the hemiplegic patient remain unsolved. The general practitioner of medicine is primarily responsible for the care of this large group of hemiplegic patients. It is essential that he face this task with realistic optimism, for much can be done to help restore these persons to lives of independence and productivity. Relatively little is known of the basic neurophysiologic mechanisms involved in the production of this clinical syndrome. There is an even greater lack of knowledge relative to the factors which