An evaluation of stroke patients in rehabilitation medicine

Strokes are one of the most important subjects of clinical and research studies of rehabilitation medicine. A system for evaluating stroke patients, however, is not yet completely established. In 1980, WHO instituted International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH). Since the introduction of the concepts of ICIDH, many studies and research on rehabilitation medicine utilizing this classification have been published. The concepts of ICIDH have been applied to some diseases of the neuro-musculo-skeletal systems such as those of stroke patients. This paper reviews the methods of functional assessment and evaluation of stroke patients categorized by using ICIDH, and also it aims at presenting a new system for evaluating the level of impairment that we originally developed.