ESOC 2019: Rehabilitation Session

Thursday morning ESOC Rehabilitation Session

The room was full for the scientific session on rehabilitation, despite the early hour and lack of coffee! My co-chair Prof Robin Lemmens and I were impressed by the quality of the research presented, and the diversity of speakers in career stage, gender and topic areas. The theme of the first few talks was activity.

Firstly, an exploratory analysis of the AVERT trial data set showed younger age, milder stroke severity and full-time work prior to stroke were significantly associated with return to work rates at 3 and 12 months after stroke (Steven Cain). Heidi Janssen presented the main results from the AREISSA trial of environmental enrichment for stroke recovery in hospital settings. Difficulties with recruitment and changing profile of people being admitted to inpatient rehabilitation facilities meant the groups were unbalanced at baseline. This model of enriched environments only improved activity in the least inactive people in the trial.

High-intensity exercise training was the next trial presented – concluding it was safe and feasible and improved fitness, but unbalanced groups again at baseline meant results were not significant. The topic then shifted to aphasia and dysphagia research with some very promising results from trials addressing the underlying impairments rather than compensations.

Finally a consensus statement on core outcome measures led from Europe came up with similar recommendations the Stroke Rehabilitation Roundtable core outcome dataset (https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/page/wso/srrr).

Congratulations again to the organisers for a brilliant diverse program. For more detailed information about this session and trial results see @Coralie_English tweets, or of course the published conference abstracts.