08 Feb 2011
PATIENTS are being asked to start their exercise therapy within 24 hours of suffering a stroke, in a trial at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
The research programme is looking into whether starting the therapy early can help reduce stroke patients’ chances of dying and the extent of their disability.
Normally, stroke patients go for rehabilitation only one or two days after they are hospitalised.
The programme, called A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial (Avert), is also being carried out in places such as Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. It was started by the National Stroke Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
Over the next three years, more than 2,000 stroke patients worldwide will be recruited for this study.
SGH is the first Asian centre for the trial. The hospital began using the programme in 2009, and intends to persuade 120 patients to take part over the next two years.
The patients will be given rehabilitation treatment within 24 hours of the onset of their stroke symptoms. They will undergo rehabilitation for a year.
Neurologist and principal investigator Mohammed Tauqeer Ahmad said the study will especially help the significant proportion of people who become disabled after a stroke.
“We want to see if we can reverse the brain damage by sending patients for rehabilitation as early as possible,” said Dr Ahmad, a registrar at the National Neuroscience Institute who is based at SGH.
Strokes are the fourth-most common cause of death, and the biggest cause of disability in Singapore.
They occur as a result of bleeding or blood clots in the brain, causing some brain tissue to die.
But other parts of the brain can take over the functions of the damaged area, said Dr Ahmad. “Early rehabilitation may help promote more blood circulation to these parts of the brain and help prevent more damage, or even reverse the process,” he said.
Previous studies have found that stroke patients devote only 13 per cent of the day to activities that could aid their recovery.
The trial also follows recent studies that supported early exercise therapy for stroke patients.
“In the past, people believed that stroke patients could not exercise immediately after having a stroke as it might be dangerous,” said Dr Ahmad.
Former sailor Phang Ban Chong has seen a vast improvement after treatment under Avert, where he received rehabilitation immediately after his stroke last April. The 66-year-old managed to walk short distances with some assistance in the early stages of the trial.
Today, less than one year on, he is back to his normal, active self.
“If you get treatment early, there is life after a stroke,” he said.
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Dept of Neurology
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