TY - JOUR
T1 - Motor imagery training speeds up gait recovery and decreases the risk of falls in patients submitted to total knee arthroplasty
AU - Zapparoli, Laura
AU - Sacheli, Lucia Maria
AU - Seghezzi, Silvia
AU - Preti, Matteo
AU - Stucovitz, Elena
AU - Negrini, Francesco
AU - Pelosi, Catia
AU - Ursino, Nicola
AU - Banfi, Giuseppe
AU - Paulesu, Eraldo
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - With Motor imagery (MI), movements are mentally rehearsed without overt actions; this procedure has been adopted in motor rehabilitation, primarily in brain-damaged patients. Here we rather tested the clinical potentials of MI in purely orthopaedic patients who, by definition, should maximally benefit of mental exercises because of their intact brain. To this end we studied the recovery of gait after total knee arthroplasty and evaluated whether MI combined with physiotherapy could speed up the recovery of gait and even limit the occurrence of future falls. We studied 48 patients at the beginning and by the end of the post-surgery residential rehabilitation program: half of them completed a specific MI training supported by computerized visual stimulation (experimental group); the other half performed a non-motoric cognitive training (control group). All patients also had standard physiotherapy. By the end of the rehabilitation, the experimental group showed a better recovery of gait and active knee flexion-extension movements, and less pain. The number of falls or near falls after surgery was significantly lower in the experimental group. These results show that MI can improve gait abilities and limit future falls in orthopaedic patients, without collateral risks and with limited costs.
AB - With Motor imagery (MI), movements are mentally rehearsed without overt actions; this procedure has been adopted in motor rehabilitation, primarily in brain-damaged patients. Here we rather tested the clinical potentials of MI in purely orthopaedic patients who, by definition, should maximally benefit of mental exercises because of their intact brain. To this end we studied the recovery of gait after total knee arthroplasty and evaluated whether MI combined with physiotherapy could speed up the recovery of gait and even limit the occurrence of future falls. We studied 48 patients at the beginning and by the end of the post-surgery residential rehabilitation program: half of them completed a specific MI training supported by computerized visual stimulation (experimental group); the other half performed a non-motoric cognitive training (control group). All patients also had standard physiotherapy. By the end of the rehabilitation, the experimental group showed a better recovery of gait and active knee flexion-extension movements, and less pain. The number of falls or near falls after surgery was significantly lower in the experimental group. These results show that MI can improve gait abilities and limit future falls in orthopaedic patients, without collateral risks and with limited costs.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-65820-5
DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-65820-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 32488010
AN - SCOPUS:85085908780
VL - 10
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 8917
ER -