The Effect of Electrical Stimulation on Impairment of the Painful Post-Stroke Shoulder

Single cohort, cross-over study. Subjects undergo passive pain-free ROM of the painful post-stroke shoulder under 3 stimulation conditions. The stimulation was delivered by a trained occupational therapist under three conditions: 10 seconds of TENS, 10 seconds of t-NMES, and 10 seconds of no stimulation. Each subject was exposed to each of the three stimulation conditions three times in a computer-generated random sequence for each outcome measure with a 5-minute wash-out period between each stimulation. This protocol is repeated for each of the two passive movements tested, shoulder abduction and shoulder external rotation.

Inclusion criteria

• at least 3 months post-stroke
• worst shoulder pain in the last week at least 4 on the 0-10 numerical rating scale,
• adequate cognitive ability to be able to rate their pain in the past week

Exclusion criteria

• history of tachyarrhythmia with decreased blood pressure
• uncontrolled seizures (defined as more than one per month)
• an implanted electrical device
• uncompensated hemi-neglect