Effects of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) Techniques on Bed Mobility, Transfer and Early Trunk Control in Acute Stroke Patients

Aims: The aim of this study was to observe the effects of Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) Techniques to improve bed mobility, transfer and early trunk control in Stroke patients.

Study Design: Assessor blinded Randomized Control Trail.

Place and Duration of the Study: Physiotherapy department of Shalamar hospital Lahore, Pakistan from March 2019 to September 2020.

Methodology: A total of 50 acute stroke patients with severity level NIHSS>21 were recruited and randomly allocated into 2 groups (males: 29, females: 21; age range: 50 to 65) after obtaining written informed consent. Patients were assessed at baseline 0 week and after 6 week of post treatment on Trunk impairment scale (TIS) and ICU mobility scale.

Results: It showed that PNF base trunk control exercises exhibited significant improvement in Trunk impairment scale(TIS) in Group A as compared with Group B at post-test, 18.44±3.176 vs 16.12±2.35 (p=0.004) respectively. ICU Mobility scale significantly improves at post-test in Group A as compared to Group B, 7.52 ±2.583 vs 5.84±1.434 (p=0.007) respectively.

Conclusion: This study concluded that PNF based trunk exercise showed more improvement in Group A (Trunk stability exercises using PNF techniques) when compared with conventional training.