Evaluation of stroke disability.

The disabilities resulting from a stroke are not well understood from the epidemiologic or functional point of view. The stroke may impair mental status, perception, sensation, communication and motor ability; the total resulting disability is related to the extent of impairment in each of these areas. A complete evaluation in all these areas has to be done to determine the degree of disability before any rehabilitation program is planned. A comprehensive approach to evaluating stroke disability is presented that includes correlating the degree of impairment in each of the above-mentioned areas with the overall functional ability of the patient.