Kinesio-Taping in Stroke Patients With Visuospatial Neglect

Summary

Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide and the third most common cause of disability. The effects of stroke are variable and may include impairments in motor and sensory systems, emotion and neuropsychological deficits such as a disorder of spatial awareness known as unilateral spatial neglect (USN). Approaches to ameliorate USN could be categorized in interventions as involving either bottom-up or top-down processing. The specific mechanisms underlying these effects on a number of manifestations of the USN syndrome may include the restoration of defective representations of the side of space contralateral to the lesion (contralesional), and of the ability to orient spatial attention contralesionally, through complex patterns of activation of both the damaged right hemisphere, and the contralateral left hemisphere, with differences related to the specific stimulation delivered to the patient. In recent years, increasing cutaneous stimuli through neuromuscular kinesiotaping has been proposed to enhance somatosensory inputs (24) and such as method could have positive effects on USN. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of KTM applied on the sternocleidomastoid muscle controlateral side of the lesions in improving USN deficits in individuals with stroke patient in sub-acute phase. The hypothesis is that the KTM application could improved cognitive tests for assessing USN, motor deficits and kinesthetic neck sensibility.

Conditions

• Stroke
• Motor Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

Kinesio taping group

The tape in the KT group will be applied with paper-off tension, which means applying the tape directly to the skin as it comes off the paper backing (approximately with 15% to 25% of available tension). KinesioTape will be applied over the SCM dystonic muscle by means of 2 "I-strips": the first strip will be placed on the medial (sternal) head and the second will be applied on the lateral (clavicular) head of the SCM muscle. KinesioTape was applied from the mastoid bone to the clavicle (rostrocaudal direction) with the SCM placed in a position of maximum stretching.

OTHER

Sham Taping

Patients in the ST group, smaller "I-strips" of KinesioTape will be used and they will be applied, with no tension and without stretching the muscles, perpendicularly to the muscle belly (starting from the middle and progressing to each side) over the same dystonic muscles as in the experimental group. Although the specific therapeutic elements of KinesioTaping (ie, longitudinal stretch, start and ending point tape application) will be removed

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universita di Verona

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nicola Smania, MD · Neuromotor and Cognitive Rehabilitation Center Department for Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences University of Verona, Verona, Italy P.zza L.A. Scuro, 10 37134 Verona, Italia

• Alessandro Picelli, MD · Neuromotor and Cognitive Rehabilitation Center Department for Neurosciences, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences University of Verona, Verona, Italy P.zza L.A. Scuro, 10 37134 Verona, Italia

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

85 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-09-01

Primary Completion

2017-11-30

Completion

2018-08-01

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations