Abstract
The recovery of motor function in 18 patients with hemiplegia due to cerebrovascular diseases (13 with cerebral infarction and 5 with cerebral hemorrhage ; 64.8±11.2 years of age) were assessed by Brunnstrom classification and compared with the transcutaneous oxygen tensions, and arterial and venous oxygen tensions of the lower limbs. The patients with severe hemiplegia showed a significant increase in the difference between the transcutaneous oxygen tensions of the affected and the healthy limbs, though no significant changes in the transcutaneous, arterial and venous oxygen tensions of affected limbs among light to severe hemiplegia patients were noted. These results suggest that the difference between transcutaneous oxygen tensions of affected and healthy limbs is useful in evaluating the grade of hemiplegia. This difference may be derived from vasomotor dysfunction, autonomic nerve palsy, opening of an arterio-venous shunt, and disorder of muscle and fatty tissue metabolisms in an affected limb.
