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(Stroke. 2007;38:2030.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Motor and Functional Recovery After Stroke

A Comparison Between 4 European Rehabilitation Centers

Tobias Brandt, MD

From Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg/Teaching Hospital of the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Correspondence to Tobias Brandt, Kliniken Schmieder Heidelberg/Teaching Hospital of the University of Heidelberg, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany. E-mail T.Brandt@kliniken-schmieder.de

Key Words: rehabilitation • stroke

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

See related article, pages 2101–2107.

There is increasing knowledge over the past years on which factors influence stroke recovery.^1–6 Organization and strategies of the rehabilitation seem to be particularly important because they can be influenced other than natural factors such as stroke location or age of the patient. Whereas in the US guidelines for the management of rehabilitation care are organized by an expert panel and the government,⁷ in the European Union there are considerable variations in both rehabilitation care and outcome.^8,9

Within the framework of the research Collaborative Evaluation of Rehabilitation in Stroke across Europe (CERISE), the European Commission funded a multicenter longitudinal cohort study comparing inpatient stroke care and recovery patterns between 4 European rehabilitation centers with a total of 531 patients included. The aim was to assess variation in motor and functional recovery patterns for 6 months after stroke. The authors were able to identify the influence of different rehabilitation programs and single components on outcome. This strategy of research may help to develop future models for delivery of rehab care.

Here, the authors have great merits. This publication follows from a series of other articles by this group addressing the question of differences of rehabilitation programs within the European Union.^10–13 Major differences were found in therapy intensity, organization, and efficiency. In a time sampling study, daily therapy time ranged on average from only 1 hour in the UK to the nearly 3-fold in the Swiss center independent of the patients-to-staff ratio.¹⁰ The reason for these . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Motor and Functional Recovery After Stroke: A Comparison of 4 European Rehabilitation Centers

Liesbet De Wit, Koen Putman, Birgit Schuback, Arnost Komárek, Felix Angst, Ilse Baert, Peter Berman, Kris Bogaerts, Nadine Brinkmann, Louise Connell, Eddy Dejaeger, Hilde Feys, Walter Jenni, Christiane Kaske, Emmanuel Lesaffre, Mark Leys, Nadina Lincoln, Fred Louckx, Wilfried Schupp, Bozena Smith, and Willy De Weerdt
Stroke 2007 38: 2101-2107. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]