Abstract
[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between gait ability improvement and physical factors after botulinum treatment and physical therapy. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 41 chronic hemiparetic stroke patients with lower limb extensor spasticity. Depending on their cases, BoNT-A injections of 300 units were given to the gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, and/or flexor hallucis longus. Physical therapy was conducted for 4 weeks from the day after the injection. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationships between the gait-speed improvement rate after the intervention and the items measured before the intervention. [Results] No significant correlations were found between the gait-speed improvement rate and age, weight, or degree of paralysis, but there were significant correlations between the gait-speed improvement rate and MAS, BBS, gait speed, and gait type. [Conclusions] These results suggest that the combination of botulinum treatment and physical therapy improves the gait speed irrespective of age, weight, or degree of paralysis, and that its efficacy is higher in patients with severe spasticity and poor gait ability.
