Hydrotherapy for balance and knee strength in patients with stroke

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of hydrotherapy and land-based conventional therapy (CT) on postural balance and knee strength in stroke patients (1).The results showed that eleven articles were included. Pooled results showed that hydrotherapy was more beneficial in stroke patients on BBS, TUG, and KE torque than CT. In subgroup analysis according to stroke-onset duration, hydrotherapy for chronic stroke patients exhibited significant effectiveness on BBS; no significant effect was observed in subacute stroke patients. The authors conclude that stroke patients showed improvement in postural balance and paretic knee extensor strength with hydrotherapy. Hydrotherapy exhibited significant effects on improving postural balance in chronic patients than in subacute patients.