The aim of this study was to examine the impact of increasing the acute-phase rehabilitation time on functional outcomes and length of stay in hospital for people with mild cerebral infarction.
In 2019 and 2021,people who diagnosed an ischemic stroke with mild symptoms were retrospectively analyzed. We included the population whose Brunnstrom stage of lower limb was V or over on admission. People who required an additional rehabilitation at another hospital were excluded. We evaluated age, the initial rehabilitation days following stroke, average daily rehabilitation time, length of hospital stay, and functional independence measure (FIM) at discharge. To reveal the effect of rehabilitation time, the population were divided into normal group (traditional rehabilitation time in 2019) and extensive group (increased rehabilitation time in 2021).
This study included 199 people with a median age of 75.0 and 126 of whom were male (63.3％).There were no significant differences in age, sex and the disease severity between 2 groups. The time to start rehabilitation after stroke is significantly earlier in extensive group than in normal group (1.0±0.7days vs 1.7±1.3days, respectively;p=0.04). The daily average rehabilitation time was 35±15minutes in normal group and 69±23minutes in extensive group. Although there were no significant difference regarding FIM at discharge between 2 groups, the length of stay in hospital was significantly shorter in extensive group than in normal group (10.7±7days vs 12.6±8days,respectively;p=0.02)
Our results suggest that acute-phase extensive rehabilitation for people with mild stroke could shorten the length of hospital stay without affecting the functional outcome at discharge.
This study suggests that spending more rehabilitation time during acute stage would be beneficial for people with mild stroke.
mild stroke
length of hospital stay
