Prognosis of stroke in children after three months of regular physical therapy in Lahore

Objective: to evaluate the effects and significance of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation exercises on stroke patients. methods: the prospective follow-up study was conducted from january, 2012, to june, 2012, and comprised randomly-selected patients at the department of neurology, children hospital and institute of child health, lahore. using systematic sampling the patients were divided into two groups. patients in group i were subjected to proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation therapy, while those in group ii were treated by passive range of motion exercises only. all patients were followed up at months 1, 2 and 3. data was collected through a questionnaire, while muscle strength was evaluated through medical research council scale. all date was analysed using spss 20. results: there were 50 patients in the study who were all below 15 years of age. muscle strength of affected side at baseline in the experimental group i was 2.36±0.49 and in the control group ii it was 2.60±0.50. at the end of the three-month follow-up, it had considerably increased to 4.76±0.43 in group i while it was 3.80±0.50 in group ii (p<0.0001) conclusion: proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation technique was an effective method in terms of pain relief, stiffness reduction and functional improvement.