Effects of modified constraint-induced movement therapy combined with trunk restraint in chronic stroke: A double-blinded randomized controlled pilot trial.

Background: Reducing the compensatory mechanism by restraining the unnecessary movement may be helpful in relearning the upper-limb movement.

Objective: To investigate the effects of a modified constraint-induced movement therapy (mCIMT) with trunk restraint (TR) in chronic stroke patients with moderate impairment.

Methods: Eighteen participants with hemiparesis were randomly assigned to mCIMT + TR or mCIMT. Each group underwent 20 (1 h/d) intervention session (5 d/wk for 4 weeks). Patients were assessed with the action research arm test (ARAT), the Fugl-Meyer assessment upper extremity (FMA-UE), the modified Barthel index (MBI), and the motor activity log (MAL-AOU and MAL-QOM).

Results: The mCIMT combined with trunk restraint group exhibited greater changes in the ARAT, FMA, MBI, and MAL (MAL-AOU and MAL-QOM) compared with the mCIMT group. Statistical analyses showed significantly different in ARAT (Z = -2.17, P = 0.03), FMA-UE (Z = -2.49, P = 0.01), MBI (Z = -2.44, P = 0.02), MAL-AOU (Z = -2.17, P = 0.03), and MAL-QOM (Z = -2.17, P = 0.03) between groups.

Conclusions: These finding suggest that mCIMT combined with trunk restraint is more helpful to improve upper-extremity function than mCIMT only in patient with chronic stroke.