Staging Motor Impairment After Stroke

The World Health Organization's International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH) offers definitions and consistent terminology that are useful for planning, administering, and evaluating rehabilitation programs. Within this classification system, "in the context of health experience, an impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure in function." The need for consistent terminology relating to disease consequences has been identified for many years, and while modifications to this ICIDH definition may occur, the basic soundness of the concept is acknowledged and has been integrated into health care. In a "call for action" by Basmajian and Gowland, it is noted that "[t]he complex nature of recovery of individual stroke patients demands clarification of its natural history and classification of its variable patterns. The reliance on one stereotyped model of stroke leads to generalized and often inappropriate

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