Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the complex rehabilitation of patients after stroke

Aim – to study the efficiency of an integrated approach in medical rehabilitation using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for patients in the early post-stroke recovery period.

Material and methods. The study included 50 patients who had suffered an acute cerebrovascular accident in the early recovery period (six months after the stroke). All patients included in the study had a clinical manifestation of hemiparesis, either left- or right-sided. The patients were divided into the two groups: experimental and control. The rehabilitation process included therapeutic exercise with a trainer, mechanotherapy, and occupational therapy. The experimental group also received TMS on the motor cortex projection of the affected side of the brain.

Results. The average values of the parameters in patients who included TMS in the rehabilitation process at the end of the study were as follows: the muscle strength assessment scale parameters improved by 25.88%; the Rivermead Mobility Index by 28.37%; the Barthel Index by 25.21%; hand dynamometry (kg) by 27.45%, the Berg Balance Scale by 36.86%, and the 6-minute walk test by 29.59%.

Conclusion. For most clinical scales, we tracked a positive dynamics as a percentage compared to the control group. This allows us to conclude that the use of TMS in the complex rehabilitation of patients after a stroke is efficient.