Madiha Hassan Nabih Mohamed^1,, Shereen Abd El-Moniem Ahmed²

Background: Rehabilitation of upper limb is a challenge; constraint of compensatory trunk movement by trunk-restraint may be a crucial element to take in throughout training of reach to grasp for stroke patients with upper arm impairment. Aim: Evaluate the effectiveness of reach to grasp training using trunk-restraint on trunk arm control after stroke. Method: Experimental design was used on randomized control sample of eighty stroke patients in this study chosen by simple randomization. The study was conducted from the 1st of January, 2017 to the 1st of January, 2018. Three tools were used to conduct this study: Interviewing questionnaire, Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity (FMUE) Scale, and Modified Ashworth Scale. Results: The majority of the studied groups (95.0% and 90.0%) were an ischemic stroke for the study and control group respectively. Statistical significant increase in elbow extension score at the study group compared with the control group that registers just 2.20° increase in elbow extension (P: 0.000). Conclusion: Use of trunk restraint is an effective therapy for the training of reaching and grasping, which reduce the upper extremity impairment, increased elbow extension, and reduce the excessive trunk movement during reaching. Recommendations: The current study recommended the conduction of additional studies at a variety of health institutions in Egypt, with a large sample size and long-term follow-up.

stroke, reach to grasp training, trunk-restraint, trunk arm control