Standard early rehabilitation and lower limb transcutaneous nerve or neuromuscular electrical stimulation in acute stroke patients: a randomized controlled pilot study

Objective: We investigated adding lower limb transcutaneous nerve stimulation or neuromuscular electrical stimulation to standard early rehabilitation in acute stroke patients. Design: An assessor-blinded, randomized controlled pilot study. Setting: A medical stroke center. Subjects: First-stroke patients aged 20-80 years admitted to the stroke center within 24 hours post stroke. Interventions: A total of 42 participants were randomly assigned to groups: transcutaneous nerve stimulation + standard early rehabilitation, neuromuscular electrical stimulation + standard early rehabilitation, or standard early rehabilitation-only. Transcutaneous nerve or neuromuscular electrical stimulation was delivered to the affected tibialis anterior and quadriceps muscles for 30 minutes a day, five days per week for two weeks. Main measures: The Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients, the Functional Independence Measure, and three mobility milestones, namely, sitting for >five minutes, standing for >one minute, and walking > 50 m, were evaluated, respectively, at baseline, at the two-week post-intervention, and at two-week follow-up. Results: Significant differences existed in the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients scores between the transcutaneous nerve stimulation and standard early rehabilitation-only groups measured at two-weeks post-intervention (mean (SD) = 31.38 (5.39) and 18.00 (8.65), respectively) and at the two-week follow-up (34.08 (2.69) and 26.14 (7.77), respectively). A higher proportion of participants could walk > 50 m independently in the transcutaneous nerve stimulation group than in the standard early rehabilitation-only group at the two-week post-intervention (P = 0.013) and two-week follow-up (P = 0.01) marks. Conclusion: Two weeks of transcutaneous nerve stimulation added to standard early rehabilitation improved postural stability and walking in acute stroke patients.