Joanne Glinsky, Lisa Harvey, Pauline Van Es
Weakness in partially paralysed muscles is a disabling impairment for people with neurological conditions. Strength training programmes are widely administered to address this impairment. There is a common belief that the effectiveness of strength training programmes can be enhanced by the addition of electrical stimulation. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the efficacy of electrical stimulation for increasing voluntary strength in people with neurological conditions. The authors identified eligible randomized trials of electrical stimulation, of which eighteen satisfied the inclusion criteria. These studies involved participants with spina bifida (n = 1), cerebral palsy (n = 1), peripheral nerve lesion (n = 1), multiple sclerosis (n = 1), spinal cord injury (n = 3) and stroke (n = 11). The authors concluded that several studies suggest a modest beneficial effect of electrical stimulation in patients with stroke. However, it is not clear whether patients with other types of neurological disabilities benefit from electrical stimulation in the same way.
Physiotherapy Research International, 2007, article on line in advance of print.