AIM: To observe the changes of functional comprehensive assessment (FCA) scores 1, 3 and 6 months after early rehabilitation in hemiplegic patients induced by stroke. METHODS: Forty-two patients were randomly divided into treatment group (n = 23) and control group (n = 19). Patients in the treatment group received the comprehensive rehabilitation treatment, including medical gymnastic for the hemiplegic patients, neuromuscular facilitation, biofeedback treatment, ability of daily living training, rehabilitative nursing care and acupuncture; those in the control group received routine rehabilitative instruction only. All the patients were evaluated by using the FCA before, 1, 3 and 6 months after treatment, respectively, and the data were compared. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the FCA score between the two groups before treatment (p > 0.05). One month after treatment, the FCA score in the treatment group (67.53 +/- 16.81) was superior to that in the control group (59.96 +/- 20.97) (t = 1.6648, p < 0.05). Three months after treatment, the FCA score in the treatment group was 85.50 +/- 16.52, higher than that in the control group (77.84 +/- 16.74) (t = 1.7048, p < 0.05). Six months later, there was significant difference in the FCA score between the treatment group (94.73 +/- 13.54) and the control group (85.34 +/- 12.81 (t = 2.3195, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Early rehabilitation has an obviously curative effect on the short and long term functional recovery of hemiplegic patients after stroke.

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