AIM: To observe the influence of exercise therapy on the recovery of motor function of limbs and its safety in stroke patients, and explore whether somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) can be used as the index for evaluating the recovery of motor function of limbs in stroke patients. METHODS: Totally 105 paralytic inpatients after cerebral infarction (CI) in the Department of Neurology, Ruikang Hospital of Guangxi College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, were randomly divided into rehabilitation group (n = 70) and control group (n = 35). The patients with attack more than 1 week and had severe cognitive dysfunction and anepia were excluded. All the patients received routine treatment during the acute period, and besides, those in the rehabilitation group received early rehabilitative exercise therapy as soon as their vital signs were steady. The motor function was evaluated with Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), and SEP examination was performed in all the patients before and after therapy. RESULTS: After therapy, the score of FMA in the rehabilitation group (68.15 +/- 20.12) was significantly different from that in the control group (58.69 +/- 19.13) (t = 2.217 4, p = 0.029 0); There were significant differences in the improvement of SEP latency between the rehabilitation group and the control group (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). The correlation analysis of FMA and SEP before and after therapy showed that there was obvious negative correlation between them (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Early rehabilitation therapy is good for the recovery of motor function in the stroke patients, and SEP can be taken as one of the objective indexes for the evaluation.

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