Stroke rehabilitation is a treatment method that helps patients who have experienced a stroke relearn basic skills lost after the stroke. Rehabilitation helps patients with stroke-related brain damage to learn new ways of performing basic skills such as dressing, eating and walking. Rehabilitation also can increase a patient’s endurance, flexibility, strength and ability to communicate.

Each year, more than 700,000 people in the United States experience a stroke. Two-thirds of these people eventually require rehabilitation, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the United States, with more than 4 million Americans currently living with the effects of stroke.

Every stroke is unique and the effect on the patient depends on the location and extent of brain damage, as well as the person’s overall health status before the stroke occurred. People who have a hemorrhagic stroke (which involves bleeding around the brain) are more likely to sustain severe damage than people who have an ischemic stroke (where blood supply to the brain is blocked). According to the NIH:

• 10 percent of stroke patients recover completely
• 25 percent recover with minor impairments
• 40 percent experience moderate to severe impairments
• 15 percent die shortly after their stroke

Most people who experience a stroke will require some form of rehabilitation therapy. Rehabilitation cannot reverse the brain damage caused by stroke. Unlike some types of cells (e.g., skin cells), brain cells do not regenerate after they have been damaged or killed.

However, the brain can be trained to adapt to cellular damage in ways that allow patients to learn to function by using undamaged nerve cells. Therapy can provide patients with skills that help enhance their quality of life. In some cases, patients may need to relearn old skills. For example, patients who have experienced certain types of stroke-related brain damage may need to relearn how to coordinate their leg movements so they will be able to walk.

In other cases, patients may have to learn new ways of performing tasks that help them overcome damage that occurred during the stroke. For example, patients who have lost the ability to use their left arm may need to learn how to bathe and dress using only their right arm. Patients whose speech has been damaged will need to learn new ways of talking.

Experts believe that rehabilitation is most successful in patients who undertake repetitive practice of their new skills under the guidance of a rehabilitation expert. Other factors that influence the outcome of rehabilitation efforts include the extent of damage to the brain, rapidity of emergency medical treatment, promptness of rehabilitation efforts following the stroke and the skill of the patient’s rehabilitation team.