Publication:

A comparative study to assess the satisfaction with clinical outcome of the patients suffering from hemiplegic shoulder subluxation and undergoing rehabilitation with and without Bobath shoulder sling

Background Hemiplegic shoulder subluxation is one of the most common factor for post-stroke upper limb disability. There are various ways to assess its outcome during rehabilitation, but the assessment of patients’ satisfaction with the shoulder support is often missed. This study was done to compare those patients’ satisfaction with clinical outcome who were undergoing same rehabilitation programme for their hemiplegic shoulder subluxation with and without Bobath shoulder sling.

Methods This prospective controlled interventional study was conducted on 30 patients of both sexes within the age group of 45-65 years with hemiplegic (duration <6 weeks) gleno-humeral subluxation (GHS). Screening of GHS was done by palpation. They were randomly divided in two groups of same number (15 in each group) and put on rehabilitation protocol with group 1 receiving Bobath shoulder Sling as support for subluxed shoulder and group 2 continuing without it. Patients’ satisfaction on clinical outcome was measured with clinical global impression-improvement (CGI-I) scale. Data were collected at 6 weeks (first follow up-visit), 12 weeks (visit 2) and at the end of the study i.e. 24 weeks (visit 3).

Results Statistically significant difference (p=0.003) in mean score of CGI-I at visit 1 suggested significant improvement for group 1 but no statistically significant difference in improvement was noticed between the groups at visit 2 (p=1.000) and visit 3 (p=0.724).

Conclusions Use of support for hemiplegic shoulder is beneficial only during early days of rehabilitation, not on prolonged use.