Kinesio-Taping in Stroke Patients With Visuospatial Neglect

Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide and the third most common cause of disability. The effects of stroke are variable and may include impairments in motor and sensory systems, emotion and neuropsychological deficits such as a disorder of spatial awareness known as unilateral spatial neglect (USN). Approaches to ameliorate USN could be categorized in interventions as involving either bottom-up or top-down processing. The specific mechanisms underlying these effects on a number of manifestations of the USN syndrome may include the restoration of defective representations of the side of space contralateral to the lesion (contralesional), and of the ability to orient spatial attention contralesionally, through complex patterns of activation of both the damaged right hemisphere, and the contralateral left hemisphere, with differences related to the specific stimulation delivered to the patient. In recent years, increasing cutaneous stimuli through neuromuscular kinesiotaping has been proposed to enhance somatosensory inputs (24) and such as method could have positive effects on USN. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of KTM applied on the sternocleidomastoid muscle controlateral side of the lesions in improving USN deficits in individuals with stroke patient in sub-acute phase. The hypothesis is that the KTM application could improved cognitive tests for assessing USN, motor deficits and kinesthetic neck sensibility.