Spasticity, a common impairment after stroke, has profound negative impact on outcomes in patients with stroke. Botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) injection combined with rehabilitation training is suggested for spasticity treatment. However, there is no recommendation about what kind of rehabilitation training is more appropriate than others following BoNT-A injection. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of combining BoNT-A injection with bilateral robot-assisted (RT) or mirror (MT) or task-oriented (TT) therapy for upper extremity (UE) spasticity in patients with chronic stroke.

Participants were randomly assigned to RT, or MT, or TT group after BoNT-A injection. The participants received 45minutes of intervention per day, 3 days/week, for 8 weeks according the allocated results. In addition, all participants received 30minutes of functional practice training. At pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up a blinded research assistant did outcome measures, including body function and structures by Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA), and Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS); activity and participation measures by Motor Activity Log (MAL), and Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living Scale (EADLS).

Thirty-seven subjects met the inclusion criteria and underwent randomization, 13 were assigned to the RT; 12 to MT; and 12 to TT group. The 3 groups were well matched with regard to baseline characteristics and functional status. All groups had significant improvement in FMA, MAS and MAL post-intervention. There were no group differences in FMA, MAS, EADLs either post-intervention or at follow-up. There was a trend that TT group had higher quality of movement (QOM) in MAL post intervention than the other 2 groups (P=0.07), at follow-up TT group had significantly higher QOM in MAL than the other 2 groups (P=0.03).

Combining BoNT-A injection with TT resulted in better quality of UE movement in patients with spastic stroke than with RT or MT.