Stroke Rehabilitation

In Hong Kong, more than 20,000 stroke patients per year are admitted to hospital for treatment and more than 3,000 of them died. Stroke rehabilitation service and care play a crucial role in helping these patients. A stroke is caused by the interruption of the blood supply to the brain, usually because a blood vessel bursts or is blocked by a clot. This cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients, causing damage to the brain tissue. It affects the patient’s ability to take care of himself (for example: Paralysis of the body and / or limbs, slurred speech, drooping lip, double vision, difficulty in swallowing, incontinence, numbness in part of the body, drooling of saliva etc.), severely can cause coma or death.

Best Timetable for Stroke Rehabilitation Care

The prime time for recovery from a stroke is six months after suffering, patients or relatives should arrange an appropriate rehabilitation program and services within the period, which can greatly improve the degree of recovery. Such services will include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and other post-stroke rehabilitation services.

As a result, appropriate care can help improve the patient’s quality of life and effectively. It can enhance the patient’s ability to take care of themselves. Also, a carefully-planned and followed rehabilitation program, coupled with regular exercise, can help maintain the function of the patient’s limbs and prevent any future complications. According CDC recommendations, stroke prevention is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, avoid smoking and drinking alcohol. These lifestyle changes can reduce your risk of strokes.

3 Commonly-Seen Complications After A Stroke and the prevention:

Bedsore

Patients with hemiplegia often lie on the bed. Their buttocks, heels and shoulders are prone to pressure due to being confined to a bed for long periods. It can cause skin ulcers or inflammation, tissue damage, and pressure sores. The effective prevention and treatment method is to turn the patient over frequently to avoid long-term compression of the same part. Air cushions and sheepskin cushions are also helpful in this case.

Respiratory Infection

Patients often lying on the bed will not only weaken muscle strength, but also reduce breathing ability, making it difficult to cough up sputum and saliva, which leads to pneumonia. Patients should sit upright as much as possible, physical therapy and respiratory training are also designed to help prevent respiratory infections. Choking, in addition to respiratory infections, is also a common problem. Some patients have impaired oral swallowing muscles and have difficulty swallowing. In these cases, it is necessary to follow the assessment and recommendations of the rehabilitation medical staff to prepare suitable food for the patient, and to carefully observe the patient’s eating process.

Urinary Tract Infection

Some patients do not know how to urinate due to their nervous system being damaged after a stroke. This long-term accumulation of urine in the bladder can easily cause inflammation. Therefore, patients often use urinary catheters to solve such problems. Regular replacement of urinary catheters and urination training can also help the course of the disease.

Our Hong Kong Stroke Rehabilitation Care Services

The goal of our stroke rehabilitation services and nursing care is to enable patients to achieve “self-adaptation” in life and get the best recovery possible. An early start to rehabilitation training, and the active participation of stroke patients as well as their families are all very important in any case. During the stroke rehabilitation treatment, nurses will assist patients in maintaining their physical, mental, and independent living abilities, as well as preventing complications caused by disability.

Our Stroke Rehabilitation Services include the following:

• Psychological counselling (to relieve psychological and/or emotional problems, such as psychological anxiety, helplessness, stress, etc.)
• Professional care (eg: physiological problems such as difficulty swallowing, communication difficulties, urinary incontinence, constipation, pressure sores, etc.)
• Physiotherapy (to help patients maintain physical function, to guide patients and their families in proper care and exercise, to prevent and reduce complications, so that patients can achieve the highest independence.)
• Occupational therapy (allowing stroke patients to obtain the highest independent ability in self-care, home operation, work and leisure life, etc.)
• Speech therapy (to help improve the patient’s ability to swallow, communicate and express.)

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