Immediate effects of rest periods on balance control in patients after stroke. A randomized controlled pilot trial

Abstract

ObjectivesThis randomized controlled trial evaluates the effects of two different rest periods between as set of balance exercises after stroke during inpatient rehabilitation.ResultsTwenty patients after stroke [11 males; mean (SD) age 65.4 (11.5) years; duration of illness 5.3 (3.4) weeks; 16 (80%) left-sided strokes] were randomly allocated into two groups of either a full rest (FR) of 4 min (n = 10) or a short rest (SR) of 1 min between exercise sets (n = 10). Patients improved from baseline until immediately after exercises in one-leg standing time on the affected leg [SR: mean difference 5.1 s (SD 10.3) and FR: 2.0 s (2.4)] and tandem standing time (TST). [SR: 14.9 s (SD 24.6) and FR: 5.7 s (12.0)], but OLST and TST did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.35 and p = 0.52, respectively).Trial registration The study was registered retrospectively in the German Register of Clinical Trials with the ID: DRKS00013979Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3450-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.