Maze Control Training on Kinesthetic Awareness in Patients with Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective. To determine the influence of adding maze control training to the selected conventional physical therapy on kinesthetic awareness in patients with chronic stroke. Methods. Thirty adult patients of both genders with chronic cerebral stroke were assigned to control and experimental groups randomly: the control group (A) received the selected conventional physical therapy rehabilitation program, while the experimental group (B) received the same program as group A in addition to the maze control training. Measurements for sway index, risk of fall, and knee proprioception before and after 8 weeks of treatment (24 sessions; three times per week). Results. There were significant decreases of both sway index and risk of fall in both groups ( <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"> <a:mi>p</a:mi> <a:mo>≤</a:mo> <a:mn>0.001</a:mn> </a:math> in all measures), significant improvements of the knee proprioception in 30° and 75° in the experimental group ( <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"> <c:mi>p</c:mi> </c:math> value = 0.016 and ≤0.001, respectively). The in-between groups’ comparison showed significant differences corresponding to both the sway index and risk of fall ( <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"> <e:mi>p</e:mi> <e:mo>≤</e:mo> <e:mn>0.001</e:mn> </e:math> ), and a significant difference in 75° ( <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"> <g:mi>p</g:mi> <g:mo>≤</g:mo> <g:mn>0.001</g:mn> </g:math> ). Conclusion. Adding maze control training to the selected conventional physical therapy improved the kinesthetic awareness in patients with chronic stroke.