PHILADELPHIA – More than 700,000 Americans suffer a stroke annually, and about two-thirds of them survive and require rehabilitation. Recovering from this debilitating event can be lengthy and strenuous. New innovative therapies are being developed to help make the road to recovery quicker and smoother. Magee Rehabilitation offers the following three cutting-edge therapies to help stroke patients recover and gain function in their paralyzed limbs.

Locomotor Training is a rehabilitative approach for individuals with spinal cord injuries and stroke that aids in the recovery of walking ability. This intervention is based on current knowledge of how the brain and spinal cord control stepping and how the nervous system learns a motor skill like walking.  The systematic approach of locomotor training consists of three primary components:

• Step training using body weight support on a treadmill with hands-on therapist assistance to move the legs.
• Over ground walking training
• Community ambulatory training

Therapy sessions include time spent training on the body weight support treadmill system, transition of the skills practiced on the treadmill to the over ground environment and then into real-life skills like walking, moving from a chair to standing, and standing for  self-care activities, like toileting and grooming.

Bioness Ness H200 is an advanced technology that works both as a neuroprosthesis that correctly positions a patient’s limb, and as an electrical stimulation device that gently exercises the hand. Magee is among the first in the country to offer the Ness H200, which helps return lost function to hands paralyzed by stroke or spinal cord injury.  The NESS H200 is a device worn on the hand and forearm. The device includes five electrodes positioned above certain muscles responsible for different forms of movement. Once the NESS H200 is fitted, it controls the function of the hand by a coordinated stimulation of nerves and muscles. The goal is to help a patient’s brain re-learn how to control the muscles of the hand and to be able to grasp an object again.  In addition, the exercises reduce spasticity, improve local blood flow, and strengthen muscles that can atrophy from non-use.

Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is a research-supported intervention that helps stroke patients maximize or restore motor functions in their paralyzed arm through repeated practice using the affected arm and hand while limiting the use of their non-affected arm. Dr. Edward Taub of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Steven Wolfe of Emory University are two of the leading researchers for this intervention. Their work has demonstrated that  activity  can change  the brain just  as the brain can change activity.

As part of the three-week CIMT program, patients wear a mitt attached to a breakaway sling on their unaffected arm to force the use of the paralyzed arm and hand more naturally while conducting daily activities. Repetition of tasks with the affected arm and hand helps patients to build the neural connections for improved use of the affected limb, and to rely less and less on their unaffected extremity.