Objective:

This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effects of robot-assisted rehabilitation on balance, mobility, motor recovery, and walking speed in stroke patients, while also assessing heterogeneity among included studies.

Background:

Robot-assisted rehabilitation has gained increasing attention for its potential to improve key rehabilitation outcomes such as the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go (TUG), Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), 10-Meter Walk Test (10MW) to assess balance, mobility, and motor function in stroke patients. However, its effectiveness across different phases of recovery remains unclear. 

Design/Methods:

We performed a random-effects meta-analysis on clinical trials reporting mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for BBS, TUG, FMA, and 10MW outcomes. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I² statistic.

Results:

 This meta-analysis including 37 studies comprising 1296 patients (678 intervention, 618 control), robot-assisted rehabilitation showed a small but significant improvement in balance (BBS: MD -0.99, 95% CI: -1.80 to -0.18, p < 0.01). Mobility also had significant improvement (TUG: MD -1.84, 95% CI: -3.78 to 0.10, p = 0.03), while no significant effect was found for motor recovery (FMA: MD 1.05, 95% CI: -0.43 to 2.52, p = 0.13) or walking speed (10MW: MD 0.02, 95% CI: -1.04 to 0.09, p = 0.02).

Conclusions:

Robot-assisted rehabilitation significantly improves mobility (TUG) and provides a modest benefit in balance (BBS), though it shows no significant effect on motor recovery (FMA) or walking speed (10MW). Further studies are needed to explore long-term outcomes and optimize rehabilitation protocols, potentially enhancing stroke recovery.