Hi Paul,
Thanks for your post. Hopefully you receive responses from stroke survivors about their personal experiences with compression garments and what has/hasn’t worked for them.
In the meantime, has your client had a spasticity clinic assessment to explore other options such as botulinum toxin? Your client may also like to have a look at these resources:
Another suggestion is posting your question on InformMe, our website for health professionals. You may receive responses from others about their thoughts.
My colleague Simone is an Occupational Therapist and works Mondays-Wednesdays, please feel free to give her a ring on 1800 787 653 if you would like chat further,
Best Wishes,
Lisa (StrokeLine)
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your enquiry. Building on from what Lisa has written, I don't believe there is any solid evidence for the use of compression garments for stiffness on a scan of the literature or our guidelines. I've not come across it often (if at all) in my clinical experience. When you write stiffness are you referring to increased tone or spasticity? Compression garments are usually prescribed for odema post stroke. Is there any swelling present in the limb? If odema is an issue and potentially contributing to the stiffness in the joints and reduced range of movement then there may be benefit of trialing a compression garment. I would be hesitant to prescribe an expensive garment without a clear understanding of your goals and evidence that it will lead to benefit. You could contact a garment manufacturer (such as Second Skin) to discuss with them what evidence they have in cases similar to yours/your clients. They offer consultations and have clinics around Australia for assessment if you felt this was worth investigating.
You may like to refer to the Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management to read more on complications of the upper limb such as spasticity and odema and refer to the references for further reading.
We have our previous guidelines from 2010:
https://informme.org.au/Guidelines/Clinical-Guidelines-for-Stroke-Management-2010/Chapter-7-Managing-complications/7-3-Spasticity
Here are our draft guidelines for 2017 which are the most up to date:
https://www.magicapp.org/app#/guideline/1439
If you wish to discuss don't hesitate to call us on StrokeLine 1800 787 653.
Kind regards,
Simone (StrokeLine)