Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 6, 2021; 9(22): 6268-6277
Published online Aug 6, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i22.6268
Retrospective study of effect of whole-body vibration training on balance and walking function in stroke patients
Lei Xie, Shi-Xiong Yi, Qi-Feng Peng, Pei Liu, Heng Jiang
Lei Xie, Shi-Xiong Yi, Qi-Feng Peng, Pei Liu, Heng Jiang, Department of Rehabilitation, Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Chongqing 400021, China
Author contributions: Jiang H provided conceptualization and methodology and supervised the report; Xie L and Yi SY wrote and reviewed the paper; Liu P contributed to the analysis; Peng QF provided data curation.
Supported by Chongqing Science and Technology Bureau, No. cstc2019jxjl130023.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Heng Jiang, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Rehabilitation, Chongqing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, No. 6 Seventh Branch Panxi Road, Jiangbei District, Chongqing 400021, China. 1933286638@qq.com
Received: April 7, 2021
Peer-review started: April 7, 2021
First decision: April 28, 2021
Revised: May 7, 2021
Accepted: May 24, 2021
Article in press: May 24, 2021
Published online: August 6, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Dysfunction in stroke patients has been a problem that we committed to solve and explore. Physical therapy has some effect to regain strength, balance, and coordination. However, it is not a complete cure, so we are trying to find more effective treatments.

AIM

To observe the effect of whole-body vibration training (WVT) on the recovery of balance and walking function in stroke patients, which could provide us some useful evidence for planning rehabilitation.

METHODS

The clinical data of 130 stroke participants who underwent conventional rehabilitation treatment in our hospital from January 2019 to August 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. The participants were divided into whole-body vibration training (WVT) group and non-WVT (NWVT) group according to whether they were given WVT. In the WVT group, routine rehabilitation therapy was combined with WVT by the Galileo Med L Plus vibration trainer at a frequency of 20 Hz and a vibration amplitude of 0+ACY-plusmn+ADs-5.2 mm, and in the NWVT group, routine rehabilitation therapy only was provided. The treatment course of the two groups was 4 wk. Before and after treatment, the Berg balance scale (BBS), 3 m timed up-and-go test (TUGT), the maximum walking speed test (MWS), and upper limb functional reaching (FR) test were performed.

RESULTS

After 4 wk training, in both groups, the BBS score and the FR distance respectively increased to a certain amount (WVT = 46.08 ± 3.41 vs NWVT = 40.22 ± 3.75; WVT = 20.48 ± 2.23 vs NWVT = 16.60 ± 2.82), with P < 0.05. Furthermore, in the WVT group, both BBS score and FR distance (BBS: 18.32 ± 2.18; FR: 10.00 ± 0.92) increased more than that in the NWVT group (BBS: 13.29 ± 1.66; FR: 6.16 ± 0.95), with P < 0.05. Meanwhile, in both groups, the TUGT and the MWS were improved after training (WVT = 32.64 ± 3.81 vs NWVT = 39.56 ± 3.68; WVT = 12.73 ± 2.26 vs NWVT = 15.04 ± 2.27, respectively), with P < 0.05. The change in the WVT group (TUGT: 17.49 ± 1.88; MWS: 6.79 ± 0.81) was greater than that in the NWVT group (TUGT: 10.76 ± 1.42; MWS: 4.84 ± 0.58), with P < 0.05.

CONCLUSION

The WVT could effectively improve the balance and walking function in stroke patients, which may be good for improving their quality of life.

Keywords: Balance function, Berg balance scale, Maximum walking speed test, Stroke, Timed up-and-go test, Vibration training

Core Tip: It is widely known that stroke victims have problems with walking, standing, balance, etc. In these populations, after training with a whole-body vibrator, there were some implications for rehabilitation, as follows: the patient’s quality of movement was improved, which included movements such as standing up, sitting down, standing independently, standing with the eyes closed, standing with the arms held out in front of the body, turning around, crossing with both feet, and standing on one leg; and the speed of the patient’s movement was faster, such as walking straight, getting up from the chair, and sitting down.