International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Abstract

Discovering Nepal in the Global Milieu of Stroke Rehabilitation: A Narrative Review

Namuna Sharma*, Sudarshan Raj Kandel and Saswot Neupane

Background: Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability and death worldwide accounting for 12.2 million new cases, 101 million prevalent cases, 6.55 million stroke related deaths. The prevalence of stroke contributed to 7.6% of total deaths and 3.5% of total DALYs (years of healthy life lost) in Nepal. Stroke can result in a large variety of motor and non-motor symptoms and signs but the most common among all is the motor impairments. Those patients, who survive the initial period, might face the greatest long-term effect in development of impairments, limitation of activities and reduced participation in the community. As the number of survivors with disability and chronic care needs grows, rehabilitation will play an increasingly important role in the stroke management. The identification and utilization of best treatment approach and innovations in global and national/local level have been recognized as the top priority for overall and optimal recovery of person with areas of affection in multiple domains.

Purpose: This article presents a review regarding the historical trajectories of stroke rehabilitation in the world, the evidence suggesting the evolving landscape of global trends and innovations in stroke rehabilitation, the history of rehabilitation concept of Nepal, the evidence surrounding the Incidence and comprehensive management of stroke in Nepal, it also explores the current trends of stroke rehabilitation in the context of Nepal providing useful feedback and discovers the necessity of utilization as well as future research to be carried out to meet the global fashion.

Conclusion: Based on the synthesis of evidences, we suggest that stroke rehabilitation concept in Nepal from the physiotherapy perspectives lags far behind from global innovations and current trends as evidenced by very minimal articles. The extensive search of researches shows: Early mobilization, constraint induced movement therapy, motor relearning program, telerehabilitation, task-oriented training, basic robotics and conventional exercises in practice for stroke rehabilitation. Thus, this provides a future direction for many skilled trainings, researches and innovations to be discovered for stroke rehabilitation in the context of Nepal.

Published Date: 2023-12-25; Received Date: 2023-11-20