Standard early rehabilitation and lower limb transcutaneous nerve or neuromuscular electrical stimulation in acute stroke patients: a randomized controlled pilot study

We investigated adding lower limb transcutaneous nerve stimulation or neuromuscular electrical stimulation to standard early rehabilitation in acute stroke patients. An assessor-blinded, randomized controlled pilot study. A medical stroke center. First-stroke patients aged 20–80？years admitted to the stroke center within 24？hours post stroke. A total of 42 participants were randomly assigned to groups: transcutaneous nerve stimulation？+？standard early rehabilitation, neuromuscular electrical stimulation？+？standard early rehabilitation, or standard early rehabilitation-only. Transcutaneous nerve or neuromuscular electrical stimulation was delivered to the affected tibialis anterior and quadriceps muscles for 30？minutes a day, five？days per week for two？weeks. The Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients, the Functional Independence Measure, and three mobility milestones, namely, sitting for >five？minutes, standing for >one？minute, and walking ？50？m, were evaluated, respectively, at baseline, at the two-week post-intervention, and at two-week follow-up. Significant differences existed in the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients scores between the transcutaneous nerve stimulation and standard early rehabilitation-only groups measured at two-weeks post-intervention (mean (SD)？=？31.38 (5.39) and 18.00 (8.65), respectively) and at the two-week follow-up (34.08 (2.69) and 26.14 (7.77), respectively). A higher proportion of participants could walk ？50？m independently in the transcutaneous nerve stimulation group than in the standard early rehabilitation-only group at the two-week post-intervention (P？=？0.013) and two-week follow-up (P？=？0.01) marks. Two？weeks of transcutaneous nerve stimulation added to standard early rehabilitation improved postural stability and walking in acute stroke patients