Health: Help For Patients Recovering From Stroke
By Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It's new help for hundreds of thousands of patients trying to recover and regain movement after a stroke. There's new FDA technology that helps stroke patients get their lives back faster.
Stroke survivor Janet Johnson is remarkably able to use scissors now after years of traditional hand therapy. She found help with a high-tech glove.
"I couldn't write very well, I couldn't type and I was a superfast typer."
The new stroke therapy is called the MusicGlove. David Reinkensmeyer, PhD Lead Researcher, says, "It's a musical game where you have notes coming at you, demanding you to move every couple of seconds."
The glove has sensors that track a user's hand movements, mimicking pincer and pinch grips. These movements are key to regaining neurological function in the hand after a stroke.
"You want to practice doing the things that are like the things that you want to be able to do in your daily life," Reinkensmeyer explains.
Researchers say patients using the glove made more progress than those who did traditional stroke exercises and gained 20 to 30 percent more motor function. Users regained the ability to open doors, wash dishes and use silverware. Janet saw results after two weeks testing the glove. Janet says, "It's not tedious, it's not boring. It's a lot of fun."
About 700,000 people have strokes each year, and approximately two-thirds survive and require rehabilitation. Researchers say repetition is one of the most important factors for regaining hand function and music is naturally repetitive.
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