Rehab for Stroke

What is post-stroke rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation helps someone who has had a stroke relearn skills that are suddenly lost when part of the brain is damaged. Equally important in rehabilitation is to protect the individual from developing new medical problems, including pneumonia, urinary tract infections, injury due to fall, or a clot formation in large veins.

Research shows the most important element in any neurorehabilitation program is carefully directed, well-focused, repetitive practice—the same kind of practice used by all people when they learn a new skill, such as playing the piano or pitching a baseball. The neurorehabilitation program must be customized to practice those skills impaired due to the stroke, such as weakness, lack of coordination, problems walking, loss of sensation, problems with hand grasp, visual loss, or trouble speaking or understanding. Research using advance imaging technology shows that the functions previously located in the area of damage move to other brain regions and practice helps drive this rewiring of brain circuits (called neuroplasticity).

Rehabilitation also teaches new ways to compensate for any remaining disabilities. For example, one might need to learn how to bathe and dress using only one hand, or how to communicate effectively with assistive devices if the ability to use language has been affected.

NIH: National Library of Medicine