Evaluation of Post-stroke Spasticity and Its Relationship with Age, Gender, Type of Stroke, and Lesion Location: A Systematic Review

Introduction: This was a systematic review of the literature on the prevalence and development mechanism of post-stroke spasticity (PSS) over time and the relationship of spasticity with age, gender, type of stroke, and cerebral lesion location to establish whether these variables are effective factors in prognosis and treatment of PSS. Methods: This PRIZMA-based systematic review searched all papers in different databases (Google Scholar, Springer, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus), published between 2000-2020, using the following keywords: spasticity, hypertonicity, stroke, cerebrovascular accident, epidemiology, hemorrhagic, ischemic, location, gender, and age. Results: In all, 769 papers were found in the initial search, out of which 42 papers were selected after reviewing their topic and abstract. Finally, only 16 papers were included after reading their full texts. Conclusion: PSS is not correlated with age, gender, type of stroke, and lesion location. Nevertheless, the results of the current study should be used cautiously and more studies are needed.