Umair Ahmed, Bilal Umer, Ameena Amjad.
Current clinical physiotherapy practices in stroke rehabilitation: a pilot survey.
Int J Rehab Sci Jan ;03(01):18-25.

Background: Several treatment approaches are existed and adopted by physiotherapists in stroke rehabilitation. Due to different background, knowledge, clinical experiences, personal preferences, and continually developing clinical practices, physiotherapists use different method to treat their stroke patients. Aims & Objectives: To understand the current clinical practices in stroke rehabilitation in Lahore. The insights gained from this pilot study will be used in a future to understand the clinical practice across the nation. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire of 37-items was developed through literature review. These questions were sent to practicing and postgraduate physiotherapists who have at least six months experience in the field of stroke rehabilitation. A total of 104 participants with 98% response rate were found. The majority of respondents have 7.5 month experience in treating patients with stroke. The data was analysed and interpreted through SPSS. Results: 65% consensus was found on 77% items. It is found that preferred approaches to treat stroke patients was Carr and Shepherd and PNF/Brunnstrom methods which are being used by more than 80% and 76% physiotherapists respectively. The disagreement among clinicians do exist, however, physiotherapists are largely agree on the issues of muscle weakness, limitation of range of motion, and to some extent on muscle tone in stroke physiotherapy. The concept about use of newer techniques is only known to minority of the clinicians. Conclusion: This research results emphasize that Pakistan Physical therapy Association should develop its guidelines. Moreover, physiotherapy institutions should encourage a balance syllabus and research in this area in order to reduce uncertainties due to lack of evidence among clinicians which have been revealed in some parts of the survey to ensure efficacious treatment for stroke patients.

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