Upper Limb Treatment With "Gloreha Aria" in the Hemiplegic Patients

The hypothesis was that rehabilitation with this device could be not inferior in comparison with hands-on physiotherapy, in the reeducation of upper arm in the patient affected by stroke from cerebral ischemia or hemorrhage that had occurred ≤ 30 days before.

The principle purpose of this study will be to evaluate:

• The feasibility of this new device
• Efficacy in improving arm function abilities in the rehabilitation of patients with stroke in the sub-acute phase.

Post-stroke patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation to the Neurological Rehabilitation will be screened for enrolment and randomized in a controlled trial.

All the patients will be informed about the aim and experimental procedures before enrolment, thus written informed consent will be obtained from all of them. Patients included in the study will be randomly assigned to intervention or control group according to simple randomization technique (computerized random numbers).

Inclusion criteria

• to exhibit first cerebral vascular disease with unilateral hemispherical lesion confirmed by CT scan or MRI;
• to be sub-acute patients (less than 30 days from the cerebral vascular event);
• being affected by upper limb paresis;

Exclusion criteria

• unable to understand verbal instruction or motor commands;
• unilateral neglect;
• apraxia;
• significant visual impairment;
• unstable medical condition;
• significant orthopedic limitation to the shoulder, elbow; wrist and hand;
• upper arm peripherical nerve lesion;
• neuromuscular or neurodegenerative diseases;
• spasticity > 3 in according to the Modifies Ashworth Scale (3);