Article

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effects of neck-muscle vibration for 5 min before
occupational therapy (OT) on unilateral spatial neglect (USN). METHOD: In this
multiple-baseline design study for 6 weeks (A(1)-B-A(2) design: A(1), A(2);
conventional OT without neck-muscle vibration, B; neck-muscle vibration before OT
together with conventional OT), we examined 11 right brain-damaged patients in
the post-acute phase of stroke who showed USN. Sessions A(1) and A(2):
conventional OT for 40 min once daily for 5 days a week. Session B: the left
posterior neck muscles of the patient were subjected to vibration for 5 min,
without confirming the appearance of a kinaesthetic illusion, immediately before
OT, and then the same OT programme as in sessions A(1) and A(2) was performed.
Each session lasted 2 weeks. USN and activities of daily living (ADL) were
evaluated at 2-week intervals by the Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT) and
Functional Independence Measure (FIM), respectively. RESULTS: Significant
increases in the total scores in both the conventional subtest and behavioural
subtest of the BIT were only seen during session B. FIM scores increased
significantly during both sessions A(1)
and B. CONCLUSIONS: The application of
neck-muscle vibration before OT may have positive effects on USN, but the
specific effect on the improvement of ADL is not clear.

Langue : ANGLAIS