Biofeedback treatment of foot drop after stroke compared with standard rehabilitation technique (part 2): effects on nerve conduction velocity and spasticity.

Peroneal nerve conduction velocity (NCV) was determined in 20 hemiplegic patients with chronic foot drop. At the initial visit, relative slowing of NCV of the affected leg was observed. The patients were randomly separated into two groups, and treated for five weeks by different therapies--group 1 by conventional physical exercise and group 2 by physical exercise plus biofeedback training. Of these patients, six with severe spasticity were selected from each group to investigate the change of spasticity by patellar tendon reflex. Although with biofeedback remarkable improvement of function was observed (and reported in an earlier paper), there was no significant change of NCV and spasticity.