Samenvatting

Background:
Stroke is one of the leading causes of illnesses, affecting approximately 15 million people worldwide every year. A large amount of stroke patients are left with upper extremity paresis in the long term. Several studies have been made on the effect of Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) in the post-intervention; however, none have looked at the effect it has in the long term.

Aim:
Systematically review the benefits of CIMT in the long-term recovery of upper limb functioning in the post-acute and chronic stage of stroke.

Question:
What is the long-term effect of CIMT on the functional recovery of upper limb paresis in stroke patients compared to conventional therapy?

Method:
A systematic search was done to identify relevant randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) using PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and PEDro as databases. The articles, which had a potential relevance, were checked using the in- and exclusion criteria. The study validity was done using the checklist from PEDro. Finally the data was extracted and a best evidence synthesis was done to analyse the results using the Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT) as the outcome measure.

Results:
Five of the 1,232 articles met the inclusion criteria, four RCT's and one placebo RCT. Log performance time on the WMFT showed conflicting evidence that CIMT was more effective than conventional therapy in the long term. The functional ability from the WMFT outcome showed strong evidence that there were no significant differences between both therapies in the long run.

Conclusion:
Constraint Induced Movement Therapy shows to be effective in the long term in retaining functional abilities of the affected upper limb, however, it has not shown to be more effective than other conventional therapies used in rehabilitation. Further research would need to be done.