The Relationship Between Lower Limb Functionality, Knee Joint Position Sense, Balance and Falls in Haemiplegic Patients

Stroke is defined as a neurological disorder attributed to acute focal damage of the central nervous system from a vascular cause, including cerebral infarction, intracerebral haemorrhage and subarachnoid haemorrhage. The World Health Organisation defines stroke as a focal and sometimes global impairment of cerebral function that lasts longer than 24 hours or ends in death, develops rapidly, has no demonstrable cause other than a vascular cause. Evaluation of muscle strength and balance ability of affected patients is critical for the recovery of lower extremity motor functions.

Proprioception encompasses various sensory perception modalities such as force, effort, movement and limb position. Impairment of sensory function in patients with haemiplegia can hinder the ability of muscles to recover during walking. Accurate and effective assessment of gait and balance functions and their subsequent improvement is one of the primary goals of stroke rehabilitation programmes. Studies comparing the effects of lower extremity functionality and knee joint position sense on balance and falls are available in various versions in the literature. However, there is no study in which 'Restorative Therapies RT300 leg/arm/cor' device was used to measure functionality, 'Humac Norm Isokinetic Machine' was used to measure knee joint position sense, and 'Tecno Body Prokin Isokinetic Balance System' was used to measure balance in a single simultaneous study. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between lower limb functionality and knee joint position sense with balance and fall parameters in patients with hemiplegia using various devices.