Sensory bombardment

For a continuing education lecture we had at RPH, we were taught about the important role sensation plays in relearning your body’s movements. We were demonstrated different techniques of sensory bombardment and how to then incorporate the newly awakened sensory pathways into functional tasks (like reaching, grasping, WB’ing). Walking back after the tutorial I had thought of a couple of patients that I could practice this on; we had been warned that it can provide some noxious results on some patients and therefore to choose them carefully! With slight hesitation I fulfilled the sensory bombardment techniques, adding on a few extra components of scratchy and soft surfaces which I compared left to right. I then followed this up with some WBing activities of the UL with facilitation of shoulder girdle and arm extension (as the patient has no voluntary control of UL), reaching and grasping activities etc. By the end of the session the most rewarding part of it was that the patient said to me “my arm actually feels a part of me.”
Despite my reservations of not having used the technique before, and not knowing if I was applying it to the appropriate patient it was very fulfilling for the patient to have responded in that way without any verbal prompting. From this, I learnt that it doesn’t matter if a treatment is not perfect, or if you’re not sure if it’ll work because if it doesn’t work out you just don’t have to do it again! It also reiterated the importance that we should not neglect the impact that sensation has on patients movement and spatial awareness, and that it should be integrated into patients programmes as early as tolerated despite them not having any return of voluntary control. If we can encourage the patient with sensory bombardment techniques, visualisation techniques and any activities to involve limbs that have no movement, this may enhance their speed of recovery or at least reduce any hurdles that may arise later due to neglect, neuropathic pain, avoidance etc.