SSEP CHANGES IN STROKE AND PROGNOSTIC VALUE IN RELATION WITH ACTIVITY OF DAILY LIVING (ADL) AND RECOVERY

Background: Stroke is the most prevalent cause of disability that impairs ambulation and the ability to perform the activities of daily living. The common decits following stroke are limb paresis and postural imbalance and these can signicantly impact physical ability and health. The ability to evaluate degree of weakness after a stroke may help in planning rehabilitation. Although several factors like severity of neurological decit, lesion size, location, age have been suggested as predictors of recovery after stroke, evoked potentials provide an objective and direct method to assess the integrity of sensory and motor pathways of the central nervous system. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) can predict recovery after stroke. Aim: To assess the predictive value of median SSEP in acute stroke patients and in long term recovery. Methodology: Prospective study of 1year. 25 patients who fullled inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken and subjected to history, clinical examination, imaging and SSEP studies and compared the results with controls. Results: Out of 25 patients, 20 men and 5women. 24 patients had an ischaemic stroke and 1 had a hemorrhagic stroke. 15 patients had left hemiparesis and 10 had right hemiparesis. Most of the patients with stroke had prolonged N20 latency when compared with those of the control group. The medium value of latency of N20 was increased at the level of the “injured” hemisphere (21.18) when compared with “uninjured” hemisphere (19.3) which was statistically signicant(p<0.05). It was observed that those patients with minimal alterations or close to normal value of N20 latency(18.73) had the best rates of recovery and those with signicantly increased N20 latency (>22) had delayed and little recovery. Conclusion: The study of SSEP can be useful in complement with imaging in stroke and can be an indicator of the recovery potential in strok