Did You Know?

Radical Rehabilitation Offers Hope to Stroke Victims

Physicians generally have little hope to offer stroke victims who lose the use of an arm, but recent studies suggest that with intense rehabilitation, some patients can actually regain some movement.

The rehabilitation technique involves forcing the patient to use the bad arm by immobilizing the good arm. Apparently, the brain then somehow begins to rewire itself. Even patients who had strokes years before experienced some improvement in mobility, testifying to the brain's ability to adapt. "This offers hope that people can get better ... months and years after the damage has occurred," said Harvard Medical School neurologist Dr. Seth Finkelstein.

According to researchers, the study has broad implications. "We are on the brink of a revolution in rehabilitation." But other scientists warned that the study's success needs to be more fully understood with research into what actually occurs in the brain. The National Institutes of Health is conducting a similar study to help fill in those details.