Background: Vibration stimulation has emerged as a treatment tool to help reduce spasticity during physical therapy. Spasticity includes problems of reduced range of motion (ROM) and stiffness. However, the benefits of vibration rolling (VR) on interventions for stroke patients are unclear.
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of VR intervention on the ankle ROM and ankle stiffness in stroke patients.
Design: A randomized crossover study. Methods: Seven stroke patients completed two test sessions (one VR and one non-VR [NVR]) in a randomized order, with 48 hours of rest between each session. Participants completed intervention and its measurements on the same day. The measurements included ankle dorsiflexion and plantarflexion ROM and stiffness of ankle muscles, including the tibialis anterior, medial, and lateral gastrocnemius muscle.
Results: After VR, ankle dorsiflexion ROM, lateral gastrocnemius stiffness, and medial gastrocnemius stiffness improved significantly (all P<.05). After NVR, only the lateral gastrocnemius stiffness improved significantly (P<.05). Furthermore, in the cases of changed values for ankle dorsiflexion ROM and lateral gastrocnemius stiffness were compared within groups, VR showed a more significant difference than NVR (P<.05)
Conclusion: VR improved ankle ROM and muscle stiffness. Therefore, we suggest that practitioners need to consider VR as an intervention to improve dorsiflexion ROM and gastrocnemius stiffness in stroke patients.

INTRODUCTION
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
    Subjects
    Study Procedures
    Outcome Measures
    Interventions
    Non-Vibration Rolling(NVR)
    Statistical Analysis
RESULTS
    Ankle ROM
    Ankle Muscle Stiffness
DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

• Seju Park(Department of Physical Therapy, Nambu University)
• Hojin Jeong(Department of Physical Therapy, Nambu University)
• Byeonggeun Kim(Department of Physical Therapy, Nambu University) correspondence