Peripheral Magnetic Stimulation to Treat Patient With Post-stroke Shoulder-hand Syndrome

Overview

Shoulder-hand syndrome is a common complication following stroke, constituting of excessive pain, swelling, heat, limited range of motion, and trophic change of the affected limbs. It not only has an extensive negative impact on both physical and psychological aspects of a stroke patient's well-being, but also impose burden on the health care system and the patient's family. Despite its relatively high incidence, there is neither well-established treatment protocol, nor high quality evidence for a single effective treatment. The objective of the present study is to investigate the efficacy, including pain, spasticity, and subluxation reduction, muscle strengthening, and shoulder range of motion improvement, of high-intensity peripheral magnetic stimulation generated by the super-inductive system to treat patients with post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome.

The present study aims to investigate the therapeutic effects achieved by the peripheral magnetic stimulation for treating post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome. The investigators plan to use high-intensity peripheral magnetic stimulation generated by the super-inductive system for treatment of post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome. In terms of study design, the treatment group will receive 10 sessions of high-intensity peripheral magnetic stimulation 5 days a week for 2 weeks, with physical and occupational therapy kept as usual; while the control group will only receive conventional physical and occupational therapy. Comprehensive assessment, including history taking and physical examination testing for muscle strength, spasticity, shoulder range of motion, before and after the intervention will be conducted for evaluation.