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First of all, there is an article entitled Effect of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation on the Gait of Patients With Hemiplegia of Long and Short Duration wrote by RayYau Wang. The purpose of this study was to compare the immediate and cumulative effects of PNF treatment which was given to the pelvic region in hemiplegic patients. The sample size was 20 patients. Patients were divided into two groups according to the duration of hemiplegia which were short and long duration, 6 and 12 months, respectively. The treatment session was 30 minutes for 3 times per week for 4 weeks. The 30 minutes were divided equally into three parts for three different techniques which were rhythmic initiation, slow reversal and agonistic reversal. The results showed that both groups, the short and long duration, had improved in gait speed and cadence in the cumulative effects after 12 sessions. Also, the patients with hemiplegia of short duration had improved after the first session of PNF and that improvement increased after 12 sessions unlike the patients with hemiplegia of long duration who were improved only in cumulative effects which means after 12 sessions. Finally, the author suggested that the cumulative effects in both groups was more useful than the immediate effects.

The second article was written by T. Ribeiro, Effects of Treadmill Training with Partial Body Weight Support and The Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation Method on Hemiparetic Gait: a Randomized Controlled Study. The sample size was 23 subjects divided into two experimental groups to see the difference in the effects of the treadmill training with partial body-weight support (TPBWS) and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) technique on gait of patients with stroke. The duration of the study was 12 interventions for 4 weeks and 3 sessions weekly lasting for 30 minutes. They evaluated motor function (The Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement (STREAM)) and gait analysis (Functional Ambulatory Category (FAC)) pre and post-interventions. The PNF movements were waist dissociation, sitting and rising from the chair, anteroposterior and latero-lateral weight transfer and frontal and lateral gait. The results demonstrated that both types of interventions had improved the gait symmetry and motor function.

The last article entitled Effects of Aquatic PNF Lower Extremity Patterns on Balance and ADL of Stroke Patients. The purpose was to see the effects of aquatic PNF in lower extremity patterns on balance and ADL of stroke patients. The sample size was 20 patients. The patients divided into two groups, namely: experimental and control groups. The experimental group received PNF technique in water and the control group received PNF technique on the ground. The duration of the intervention was 30 minutes per day for 5 days per week, for 6 weeks. They used lower extremity patterns (D1 and D2). Also, they used many types of scales for measuring the balance and ADL, namely: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT), Functional Reach Test (FRT), One Leg Stand Test (OLST) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The results showed that the experimental group had improved much more than the control group.

In essence, although the sample size was too small to generalize the findings, all the aforecited articles support using a PNF technique in stroke patients whether on gait or muscle flexibility and coordination. Further researches are needed for PNF technique. From my viewpoint, I would like to use PNF methods on stroke patients because of the huge impact on them.

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