Effect of Haptic Perception Rehabilitation Robot Training on Hand Grasping Function After Stroke

Backgroud: The impaired hand function after stroke severely affected the patients' activities of daily living. Robot-assisted training is a supplementary method to promote the recovery of hand motor function, but few studies have reported the effect of haptic perception rehabilitation robots on hand grasping function after stroke. Objective: To investigate the effect of haptic perception rehabilitation robot training on the recovery of hand grasping function after stroke. Methods: This study was a single-blind randomized controlled trial. 44 stroke patients were randomly divided into experimental group (n = 22) and control group (n = 22). On the basis of conventional rehabilitation training, the experimental group received the grasp training session assisted by the haptic perception rehabilitation robot for 20 min, and the control group received the conventional hand grasp training session for 20 min. Grasp and grip part in action research arm test (ARAT), grip strength, modified Ashworth scale (MAS), total active movement (TAM) and Barthel index (BI) were used to evaluate the recovery of hand grasping function and activities of daily living before and 20 training sessions. Results: Compared with the therapist-assisted hand function training, the haptic perception rehabilitation robot training improved the grasping function and TAM of stroke patients (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant changes in other clinical outcome indicators (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The haptic perception rehabilitation robot training can help to restore the hand grasp function after stroke.