Effects of the sliding rehabilitation machine on balance and gait in chronic stroke patients - a controlled clinical trial

Objective: To investigate the effects of a sliding rehabilitation machine on balance and gait in chronic stroke patients. Design: A non-randomized crossover design. Setting: Inpatient rehabilitation in a general hospital. Subjects: Thirty patients with chronic stroke who had medium or high falling risk as determined by the Berg Balance Scale. Interventions: Participants were divided into two groups and underwent four weeks of training. Group A (n = 15) underwent training with the sliding rehabilitation machine for two weeks with concurrent conventional training, followed by conventional training only for another two weeks. Group B (n = 15) underwent the same training in reverse order. The effect of the experimental period was defined as the sum of changes during training with sliding rehabilitation machine in each group, and the effect of the control period was defined as those during the conventional training only in each group. Main measures: Functional Ambulation Category, Berg Balance Scale, Six-Minute Walk Test, Timed Up and Go Test, Korean Modified Barthel Index, Modified Ashworth Scale and Manual Muscle Test. Results: Statistically significant improvements were observed in all parameters except Modified Ashworth Scale in the experimental period, but only in Six-Minute Walk Test (P < 0.01) in the control period. There were also statistically significant differences in the degree of change in all parameters in the experimental period as compared to the control period. Conclusions: The sliding rehabilitation machine may be a useful tool for the improvement of balance and gait abilities in chronic stroke patients.