Rehabilitation of post-stroke hemiplegic patients. I. Gravity-center-swaying and walking ability

The purpose of this study was to analyze how the locus of the sway of the center of gravity (LSCG) while standing could serve as a prognostic predictor of the hemiplegic's walking ability. It was demonstrated that the prognosis of the walking ability could be predicted by the size of LSCG while standing. The size of LSCG was based on the results of the rehabilitation of 33 stroke patients with hemiplegia. After rehabilitation treatment, LSCG was significantly small and its level was maintained for a short follow-up. In the deep sensory disturbance group, however, LSCG was still larger after treatment than that of the control group. LSCG was closely correlated with walking ability at admission and discharge. With regard to the predictable factor of the walking ability improvement rate, four important factors in the following order were able to be determined by using multivariate analysis: Walking ability at admission, duration of illness, LSCG with eyes opened at admission and the rate of visual suppression (% VS). Furthermore, with respect to the predictable factor of walking ability at discharge, the following four factors, were able to be concluded: duration of illness, LSCG with eyes opened, % VS and Barthel Index Score (BIS) at the time of admission. It is therefore suggested that LSCG can make it possible to predict the walking ability, i.e., the improvement and the quality of it.