Effect of continuing repeated passive and active exercises on knee's position senses in patients with hemiplegia.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the repeated passive movement (RPM) and repeated active movement (RAM) exercise on position sense of the knee joint in patients with hemiplegia.

METHODS

45 hemiplegia patients were randomly allocated to either the control group(no exercise), RPM group, or RAM group, with 15 subjects in each group. The exercise was repeated 60 times on the angle 10 to 100 degrees of the knee joint with an angle speed of 120°/s, with three sets for 15 minutes. Evaluation was performed using Passive Angle Repositioning (PAR) and Active Angle Repositioning (AAR).

RESULTS

Error of positioning sense showed a decrease in PAR and AAR in the RPM group (p < 0.01) and an increase in AAR was observed in the RAM group (p < 0.05). In comparison of knee joint position sense error value and rate of change among the three groups, the RPM group is decreased mostly in PAR and AAR (p < 0.01), and Error value (p < 0.05) and rate of change (p < 0.01) of the RAM group showed a greater increase in AAR than the control group.

CONCLUSION

RAM exercise can support an increase in proprioception on the knee joint of hemiplegia; however, RAM exercise that causes fatigue can decrease proprioception.