Be wary of stroke rehabilitation misconceptions

  Stroke, commonly known as stroke, is an acute cerebrovascular disease with high morbidity, high mortality and high disability. In recent years, the death rate of stroke has been decreasing due to the continuous standardization of stroke units and thrombolytic therapy in the acute phase, but most of the survivors have severe disabilities, which leads to a decrease in the quality of life. Nowadays, people are pursuing a higher standard of health and the aim of treatment is not only to preserve life, but more stroke patients are seeking effective rehabilitation and guidance to improve their quality of life.  However, for many years, because there is no standardized rehabilitation treatment, many stroke patients think that rehabilitation means acupuncture, massage, or walking with the help of family members. In fact, acupuncture without timing will lead to the aggravation of limb spasm, passive massage will not reduce the disability, and blind exercise without the guidance of rehabilitation doctors will only lead to the occurrence of “misuse syndrome”, which will bring great difficulties to the future rehabilitation.  Modern advanced rehabilitation treatment is the application of neurophysiological methods and means such as occupational therapy, exercise therapy, etc., which can improve the patient’s overall functional status in terms of living ability, working ability, cognitive ability, etc., especially for patients with refractory and prolonged dysfunction, the rehabilitation has unexpected effects. During the Ninth Five-Year Plan and Tenth Five-Year Plan, two national rehabilitation research projects were conducted to study the acute rehabilitation treatment and recovery rehabilitation treatment of cerebrovascular disease respectively. The results confirmed that the rehabilitation program for stroke patients in the early and recovery phases, along with the medical treatment, will result in significant functional improvement in 80% of the patients, and only 10%-20% of the patients will have severe or moderate disability, and that the tertiary rehabilitation of cerebrovascular disease has become an important part of the treatment system for cerebrovascular disease, and is a right to rehabilitation that patients with cerebrovascular disease should enjoy, which is confirmed by the laws of social insurance and health administration.  We would like to remind everyone that stroke patients, whether in the acute phase or in the recovery phase, should undergo regular rehabilitation under the guidance of a rehabilitation doctor or a rehabilitation therapist to avoid unnecessary injuries and disabilities!