Discussion
stroke, spasticity
ADVERSE REACTIONS, RECURRENCE, STROKE, ISCHEMIC STROKE, ISCHEMIC STROKE
Ischemic stroke is characterized by high mortality, disability, and recurrence rate. The bulk of patients with stroke are accompanied by limb spasticity, seriously affecting their limb motor functions [In this research, both SGB and ESWT treatments could reduce the muscle tension and improve the upper limb motor functions of patients. After treatment, the SGB, ESWT and SGB + ESWT groups not only exhibited obviously higher MBI score but also presented a significantly increased upper limb function score based on Fugl-Meyer motor scale assessment, relative to the control group. Besides, compared with the SGB and ESWT groups, the upper limb function score was a bit higher in the SGB + ESWT group, while the MBI score was not significantly different. As for performance of upper limb exercise, patients in the SGB, ESWT and SGB + ESWT groups had significantly better fitting degree, participation and exertion than those in the control group. Moreover, the exercise track of the patients in the SGB + ESWT group was the same as that of the robot basically. Shortly speaking, ultrasound-guided SGB combined with ESWT has achieved good results in the treatment of limb spasticity in patients with ischemic stroke.SGB plays a role in regulating the functions of the vegetative nervous system, endocrine system and immune system [There are some shortcomings in this paper. Firstly, the sample size included in this study was small, so a multi-center study with a large sample size will be conducted in the future. Secondly, this study only preliminarily explored the clinical efficacy of SGB combined with ESWT in the treatment of limb spasticity in patients with stroke rather than elucidated the specific mechanism, so further research is needed. Last but not least, for various reasons, neither the statistics for the adverse reactions and long-term effects nor the further evaluation for the safety of SGB combined with ESWT for the treatment of limb spasticity in patients with stroke was carried out. Despite the above demerits, this study still contributes to the clinical application of SGB + ESWT in treating limb spasticity in patients with stroke and provides a relevant reference basis for subsequent studies.