Propriedades de medida de instrumentos de mensuração de contratura após AVE: uma revisão de literatura

Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) is one of the predominant morbidity and mortality factors in the world. Brain damage commonly results in disabilities, which can include spasticity, hypertonia, muscle weakness, contracture and reduced aerobic capacity. Contracture can appear within two weeks of the stroke. There are several contracture measurement instruments reported in the literature, so evaluating their clinical applicability and psychometric properties is important. The general objective of this study was to identify and characterize the instruments used to measure contracture after stroke. This is a literature review, the search took place from August 2018 to September 2018 in the following databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, COCHRANE and CINAHL. The following terms were used to formulate the search strategy; in addition, a manual search was carried out in the references of the articles and in virtual libraries of theses and dissertations. RESULTS: The search strategy initially identified 1627 studies; there were 56 duplicate references which were excluded. After reading the titles and abstracts, 1449 articles were excluded, of which 163 were selected for reading up to methods. After this stage, only 2 references met the eligible criteria for this review. The manual search resulted in 15 references, and 1 was included. Thus, 4 articles were included. According to the established criteria, three instruments used to assess contracture in post-stroke individuals had their basic psychometric properties tested: Goniometer, Maximum dorsiflexion in degrees and Neuroflexor. Reliability was the only measurement property assessed in the studies analyzed, with values ranging from acceptable to excellent. However, no instrument measured all four types of reliability. According to the results found, of the three post-stroke contracture instruments, all proved to be reliable for assessing post-stroke contracture. The Neuroflexor and maximum dorsiflexion in degrees proved to be reliable and the reliability values ranged from acceptable to excellent, while the goniometer reported values from acceptable to good, but also proved to be reliable.