Comparative study on the clinical manifestations of left and right-sided stroke survivors in University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospitals, Ondo

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a major global cause of death, and it’s also a kind of acquired brain injury that can leave people with lasting problems in cognition, mood/emotion, movement, sensation, and language. The purpose of this study was kinda to see how stroke survivors look clinically, when they had left-sided stroke compared with right-sided stroke, you know in a more direct way.

Methods: The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, or NIHSS was used for demographics, side of stroke, stroke severity, and for physical abilities like motor, sensory, and autonomic function. It also covered cognitive status, quantitative as well as qualitative speech abilities, and social function among stroke survivors

Results: The average time since onset was 8.57 ± 7.77 months in the left-sided group , and 5.43 ± 4.50 months in the right-sided group. Recovery stage by Brunnstrom grading came out to 2.55 ± 1.13 for left-sided patients and 3.3 ± 0.49 for right-sided patients. When comparing the two groups, there were significant differences in level of consciousness (t = 1.73, p = 0.05), visual loss (t = 2.39, p = 0.04), and limb motor function (t = -6.31, p = 0.00; t = -6.69, p = 0.00; t = -5.29, p = 0.00; t = 7.85, p = 0.00). A significant difference was also seen in best language/aphasia scores (t = 2.92, p = 0.01) but, dysarthria and total NIHSS score did not differ significantly between groups

Conclusion: Overall, left- and right-sided stroke survivors really do show meaningful differences across multiple clinical areas, including consciousness, vision, limb movement, and language. This happens even though there was no overall difference in stroke severity when judged by the total NIHSS score. These results point to the value of side-specific rehabilitation plans, because not every survivor seems to need the same thing.