Evidence for your Practice: Somatosensory retraining for improving sensory function in the arm post-stroke

Photo credit: flickr

Study

Turville, M. L., Cahill, L. S., Matyas, T. A., Blennerhassett, J. M. & Carey, L. M. (2019). The effectiveness of somatosensory retraining for improving sensory function in the arm following stroke: A systematic review. Clinical Rehabilitation. DOI: 101177/0269215519829795

Aim

To evaluate the efficacy of somatosensory discrimination skills programmes post-stroke to improve somatosensory discrimination and arm functioning. After applying the study criteria, this systematic review resulted in an analysis of 10 studies, of which the following information summarizes.

Population

Post-stroke with somatosensory impairment but typically without significant communication difficulties,  previous neurological conditions or perceptual difficulties e.g. unilateral spatial neglect

Intervention

Of the 10 studies analysed, the most common treatment principles included:

• Use of vision and unaffected hand to facilitate relearning of sensation
• Focus on functional or meaningful tasks
• A variety of graded somatosensory discrimination tasks
• Use of attention when exploring sensory features
• Feedback of task performance

On average, retraining occurring for 16 sessions over 4-8 weeks, 2-3 times per week at 70 minutes each session
15-90 minutes of homework per day was prescribed in half the studies

Key Findings

• Somatosensory discrimination retraining improves upper limb somatosensory impairment after stroke
• Evidence of impact of somatosensory discrimination retraining on arm function and participation is currently limited

Read article abstract here

Post by Kay Chan, fieldwork student with CAOT-BC

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