Contrada Marianna, Arcuri Francesco, Tonin Paolo, Pignolo Loris, Mazza Tiziana, Nudo Giuseppe, Pignataro Maria Luigina, Quintieri Maria, Iozzi Antonella, Cerasa Antonio
S. Anna Institute, Crotone, Italy.
Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation, National Research Council (IRIB-CNR), Messina, Italy.
Front Neurol. 2022 Jan 7;12:777608. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.777608. eCollection 2021.
Telerehabilitation (TR) is defined as a model of home service for motor and cognitive rehabilitation, ensuring continuity of care over time. TR can replace the traditional face-to-face approach as an alternative method of delivering conventional rehabilitation and applies to situations where the patient is unable to reach rehabilitation facilities or for low-income countries where outcomes are particularly poor. For this reason, in this study, we sought to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of a well-known TR intervention on post-stroke patients living in one of the poorest indebted regions of Italy, where the delivery of rehabilitation services is inconsistent and not uniform. Nineteen patients (13 male/6 female; mean age: 61.1 ± 8.3 years) with a diagnosis of first-ever ischemic ( = 14) or hemorrhagic stroke ( = 5), who had been admitted to the intensive rehabilitation unit (IRU) of the Institute S. Anna (Crotone, Italy), were consecutively enrolled to participate in this study. After the discharge, they continued the motor treatment remotely by means of a home-rehabilitation system. The entire TR intervention was performed (online and offline) using the Virtual Reality Rehabilitation System (VRRS) (Khymeia, Italy). All patients received intensive TR five times a week for 12 consecutive weeks (60 sessions, each session lasting about 1h). We found a significant motor recovery after TR protocol as measured by the Barthel Index (BI); Fugl-Meyer motor score (FM) and Motricity Index (MI) of the hemiplegic upper limbs. This was the first demonstration that a well-defined virtual reality TR tool promotes motor and functional recovery in post-stroke patients living in a low-income Italian region, such as Calabria, characterized by a paucity of specialist rehabilitation services.
远程康复（TR）被定义为一种针对运动和认知康复的居家服务模式，可确保长期护理的连续性。TR可以替代传统的面对面治疗方式，作为提供常规康复的一种替代方法，适用于患者无法前往康复机构的情况，或在低收入国家，这些国家的康复效果尤其不佳。因此，在本研究中，我们试图证明一种知名的TR干预措施对生活在意大利最贫困负债地区之一的中风后患者的可行性和效用，该地区的康复服务提供不一致且不统一。19名患者（13名男性/6名女性；平均年龄：61.1±8.3岁），首次诊断为缺血性（=14）或出血性中风（=5），已入住意大利克罗托内圣安娜研究所的强化康复单元（IRU），连续入选参加本研究。出院后，他们通过家庭康复系统继续接受远程运动治疗。整个TR干预（在线和离线）使用虚拟现实康复系统（VRRS）（意大利Khymeia）进行。所有患者连续12周每周接受5次强化TR治疗（共60次，每次治疗持续约1小时）。通过Barthel指数（BI）、偏瘫上肢的Fugl-Meyer运动评分（FM）和运动指数（MI）测量，我们发现TR方案实施后患者有显著的运动恢复。这首次证明了一种明确的虚拟现实TR工具可促进生活在意大利低收入地区（如卡拉布里亚）的中风后患者的运动和功能恢复，该地区缺乏专业康复服务。
