Functional differences in patients with left or right cerebrovascular accidents

The purpose of this study was to examine possible differences in functional abilities of patients with cerebrovascular accidents on the right or left side. Medical records of 102 right-handed patients with the same degree of motor impairment were reviewed; 50 had cerebrovascular accidents on the right side, and 52 on the left. Each patient was rated on five categories: mobility, perception/information processing, language, activities of daily living skills, and the total length of hospital stay (acute care plus rehabilitation). There were no statistically significant differences between the right-sided and left-sided groups in any of the categories except language (p less than .001). Long hospitalization correlated negatively with low mobility scores for the right-sided group (r = -.38, p less than .003) and with low language scores for the left-sided group (r = -.32, p less than .01). Results of this study indicate that patients with cerebrovascular accidents seem to have the same prognosis for functional motor rehabilitation regardless of the side of the lesion. The correlation of length of hospitalization with mobility for the right-sided group and length of hospitalization with language for the left-sided group may be a reflection of hemispheric specialization.