Vojta Therapy in Early Stroke Rehabilitation

Corina Epple

Status: Completed

Conditions: Reflex Locomotion; Vojta Therapy

Treatments: Other: conventional physiotherapy; Other: Vojta therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03035968

Höchster Vojta Stroke Studie

Details and patient eligibility

About

Stroke is the major cause for permanent disability in adults. It is still unclear, which physiotherapeutic approaches are most effective. The Bobath-concept is one of the most widely used approaches in stroke rehabilitation within the western world, although several studies have failed to demonstrate superiority and showed partially even inferiority compared to other physiotherapy approaches. The Vojta therapy is based on a completely different approach - the reflex locomotion. However to date no study has been performed for stroke. We designed a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to compare Vojta and conventional physiotherapy in patients with acute ischemic (AIS) or hemorrhagic stroke (ICH). This RCT will be the first trial to investigate improvement of postural control due to Vojta therapy in early rehabilitation of stroke patients, which is a very new approach in stroke-rehabilitation.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult patients (> 18 years)
• CT or MRI proven acute ischemic (AIS) or hemorrhagic stroke (ICH) within 72h after onset of symptoms
• Severe hemiparesis (medical research council scale for muscle strength ≤2)
• premorbid modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≤3
• maximal National Institute of Health Stroke Scale Score (NIHSS) 25
• Voluntary written consent by the patient

Exclusion criteria

• Severe cognitive impairment due to aphasia or dementia, prohibiting that physiotherapeutic challenges can be understood.
• Participation on another clinical trial
• Pregnancy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Vojta arm

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in the interventional arm are treated with Vojta therapy from randomization until discharge.

Treatment:

Other: Vojta therapy

conventional physiotherapy arm

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients in this control arm are treated with conventional physiotherapy for motor improvement from randomization until discharge.

Treatment:

Other: conventional physiotherapy