Rehabilitation of Post Stroke Sensory Dysfunction—A Scoping Review

Abstract

Sensory dysfunction is one of the common impairments that occurs post stroke. With sensory changes in all modalities, it also affects the quality of life and incites suicidal thoughts. The article attempts to review and describe the current evidence of various approaches of assessment and rehabilitation for post-stroke sensory dysfunction. After extensive electronic database search across Medline, Embase, EBSCO, and Cochrane library, it generated 2433 results. After screening according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included 11 studies. We categorized data based on type of sensory deficits and prevalence, role of sensory system on motor behavior, type of intervention, sensory modality targeted, and dosage of intervention and outcome measures used for rehabilitation. Results found the strong evidence of involvement of primary and secondary motor areas involved in processing and responding to somatosensation, respectively. We divided rehabilitation approaches into sensory stimulation approach and sensory retraining approach focused on using external stimuli and relearning, respectively. However, with varied aims and targeted sensory involvement, the study applicability is affected. Thus, this emerges the need of extensive research in future for evidence-based practice of assessments and rehabilitation on post-stroke sensory rehabilitation.

Effectiveness of Proprioceptive Body Vibration Rehabilitation on Motor Function and Activities of Daily Living in Stroke Patients with Impaired Sensory Function

“…Motor impairments could be associated with additional neurological symptoms that impede the restoration of motor function and require targeted physical therapeutic intervention. Post-stroke deficits in ADL, including personal hygiene, bathing, feeding, toilet use, stair climbing, dressing, and ambulation rates, have been shown to range from 11 to 85% [ 8 ].…”

Effect of a Sensorimotor Exercise Regime for Upper Limb Deficits in the In-Hospital Phase After a Supratentorial Stroke (SMULS)—Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…4 Impaired somatosensory system not only affects skilled motor performance but may lead to decreased quality of movement (force control, fine motor manipulation grasp performance, etc) and lead to learned non-use of the upper extremity. 5 Hence, integration of sensory abilities is important for motor recovery.…”

“…Sensory rehabilitation in the past has included a range of varying intervention including but not limited to sensory stimulation and sensory retraining approaches which are based on using external stimuli and retraining respectively. 5 The trial by Carey et al is one the few well-designed studies that established the role of sensory discrimination training (SENSe program) in improving sensory capacity. However, the study hasn't reported if these improvements were maintained at 6 months post-stroke.…”

Orchestrating Motion: Real-Time Sonification Tools and Methods to Support Movement Rehabilitation

“…Sensory dysfunction is a common post-stroke impairment, with impaired sensory perception including changes in sensation or the absence of it altogether regularly manifesting in stroke survivors [75]. Sensory changes affect different modalities such as proprioception and touch [37], with patients experiencing a variety of symptoms ranging from an inability to discriminate limb position in space, numbness, and tingling paresthesia [122].…”

“…However, when a similar concept (F4 -wading plus splashing/peeing sounds) was appraised by clinicians working with the target group, there arose considerable resistance to the use of layered sounds with multiple disparate elements. As noted in Paper F, this may be attributed to the need to consider the sensory and cognitive capacities of stroke patients [75,111,195,221] as well as the fact that the flexible component (splashing / peeing sounds) exhibited significant spectral overlap with the fixed component, possibly making it hard to perceive due to masking effects. It is noteworthy that even when the spectral overlap was minimal (e.g.…”