Assessment of Spasticity in Patients with Stroke (Systematic Review of Literature)

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Students’ Research Office, BSc Student of Physitherapy, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Scienses, Tehran, Iran

2 Assisstant Professor of Physitherapy, School of Rehabilitation, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Scienses, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background and Aim: Considering the importance of spasticity in the treatment of the patients with upper motor neuron lesion, the present study was conducted to review the studies concerning measuring spasticity assessment and also methods of spasticity assessment in the patients with cerebrovascular accident so as to recommend the best method for assessment of the spasticity according to the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Materials and Methods: A literature search for the period of 1995-2013 was performed in the databases of PubMed, Mdconsult, Sciencedirect, Pedro, SID, and Google scholar. Also, Spasticity, Ashworth, Hemiplegia, Measurement devices, Stroke, Assessment were used as key words.
Conclusion: Sixty nine articles were selected according to the inclusion criteria of the study. There was a wide variation among studies in terms of methodology, main outcome measures, and muscles that were evaluated. It can thus be suggested that to recognize spasticity, a combination of the different methods of spasticity measurement is required.

Keywords


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Volume 5, Issue 1
March and April 2016
Pages 190-208
  • Receive Date: 01 August 2015
  • Revise Date: 26 September 2015
  • Accept Date: 22 October 2015
  • First Publish Date: 20 March 2016