Battery of exercises to improve the coordination abilities in the upper extremities of patients with ataxia as a sequela of stroke or multiple sclerosis (Original)

Abstract

A battery of physical exercises was developed for the rehabilitation of the upper limbs in patients with cerebellar ataxia as a sequela of stroke or multiple sclerosis with the aim of applying it in the community, in Comprehensive Rehabilitation Centers of the Minsap and in Therapeutic Areas of Physical Culture. An initial diagnosis was made through a survey applied to 16 specialists who worked in the mentioned centers of 8 municipalities of the capital, and the analysis of several programs of physical neurorehabilitation and defectology, to be able to make an appropriate selection of exercises that were taken into account in the development of the specific battery for this purpose. The proposed battery was submitted to specialists experienced in the rehabilitation of such patients to assess their feasibility theoretically, which corroborated that it was relevant for its application by specialists from community centers. It was applied in practice by means of an experimental study, with two experimental groups and a normalized control group of healthy subjects, with pre-test and post-test, applying the battery of tests to evaluate the coordinative capacities applied by the Integral Evaluation Laboratory Sicomotor (LEIS) of CIREN for patients with this type of neurological disorders. For the practical evaluation, the battery developed for 6 months was applied, and the results obtained with the patients were compared against the control group of healthy subjects, which showed the effectiveness of the same to improve the coordination capacities studied. The conclusions highlight the relevance of the battery developed to be applied by specialists who rehabilitate ataxic patients as a sequela of stroke and multiple sclerosis in community centers.