A Comparative Study about Effectiveness of an Exercise therapy Program on Improvement of gait and Balance in Left and Right Hemiplegia

AbstractIntroduction: Impairment in the function of the brain caused by deficiency in the brain circulation is called stroke. Stroke is the most important factor of disability in adults. One of the most prevalent consequences of stroke is disability of walking or so-called (gait disorder) so that more than 50 percent of the patients who are in the acute phase of the disease are not capable of walking, and need to a rehabilitation period to reach for walking.Methods: In order to compare the effect of exercise therapy on the function of walking and balance and Improvement of depression in left and right hemiplegics patients, a Non-randomized clinical study was done. This study consisted of 13 right- hemiplegics patients with an average age of (60.46 ± 1.47) and 13 left hemiplegics patients with an average age of (61.92 ± 2.01) who were matched in age, height and weight. To measure the function of walking the Gait Dynamic Index, function of balance the Berg Balance Scale and Depression Beck Depression Questionnaire were used.The data were analyzed by SPSS software. To compare the effect of exercise therapy on the improvement of walking and balance before and after the treatment in each group t-paired -test and for more comparison of the two groups an independent T-test was used.Results: With analyzing the received data the following results were derived: From the viewpoint of walking, a significant difference in the right hemiplegics group (pConclusion:  This study showed that performing the exercise therapy protocol improves the function of walking, balance and depression in hemiplegic patients; never the less, no differences were observed between the two right and left hemiplegics groups.Keywords:  Hemiplegia, function of walking, function of balance and depression, stroke, gait