Context: 50% of all stroke patients develop a brachio-facial hemiparesis with spasticity of the upper extremity. Thus, many physiotherapeutic interventions aim to decrease this pathological hypertonia of the muscles. Though to date, research evaluating the efficiency of different approaches is limited resulting in many interventions not being evidence based. Objective: The aim of this study is to review relevant literature and sum up evidences for different treatments making a first step towards formulating guidelines for the optimal ther-apy of this disorder. Therefore, studies, scientific articles, reviews are evaluated. Question: Which evidence based physiotherapeutic interventions with anti-spastic effect on the spas-tic upper extremity can be found in the current literature? Selection criteria: Only literature with free access, written in German or English and in which spastic is assessed with the modified ashworth scale, ashworth scale, elctromyography or tardieu scale is used. Main results: This literature review identified seven evidence based therapies as following: bo-bath-concept, constraint-induced movement-therapy, cryotherapy, electrical stimulation, strengthening, stretching and vibrations. Conclusion: The level of evidence for different physiotherapeutic treatments for upper body spasticity following a stroke is very heteroge-neous. Furthermore, the seven interventions described in this study were shown to differ in effectiveness of the therapy for the patient. |