Stroke is one of the commonest types of disabling neurological disease worldwide. It represents a significant cost, not only in terms of personal and family disability but also in economic cost to the state. In many developed countries, there are now good-quality acute stroke care facilities and also remarkable achievements in stroke prevention, although events will continue to occur, justifying advances in recovery management. There is an increasing understanding of the various etiologies of stroke disease and increasingly effective ways to limit the degree of consequent brain damage. Despite these advances, approximately one-third of those who survive the first few weeks after stroke return home with a significant residual disability. There is increasing evidence that these people can benefit from an active multidisciplinary rehabilitation program. Neurological rehabilitation is an expanding speciality and is increasingly based on sound principles underlying neural recovery and neural plasticity.

Although there are many textbooks that comprehensively cover acute stroke management, there are surprisingly few textbooks that concentrate on recovery and rehabilitation after stroke. We hope that this textbook fills that gap. We have attempted to outline the basic neuroscientific principles that underlie brain recovery. We have then outlined appropriate clinical rehabilitation strategies that can be used to aid recovery of the many different functional problems that can arise after stroke. Each chapter is designed to be of practical help to practitioners in the field. The book is designed for a multidisciplinary audience and we hope it is of value not only to neurologists, rehabilitation physicians/physiatrists, geriatricians, and other medical specialists but will also be of interest and value to senior therapists and nurses working as members of a multidisciplinary stroke rehabilitation team.

It has been a pleasure to write and edit this book and we hope it is of value in this important and developing speciality.