To study the therapeutic effect of core stabilization training combined with virtual reality for treatment of the upper limb function in stroke.

Forty-six patients for hospitalization and outpatient treatment after stroke were randomly divided into a control and an experimental group. The two groups are all treated with physical therapy, occupational therapy, physical agents therapy and virtual reality, and core stabilization training are adopted in the experimental group. After four weeks of treatment, range of motion (ROM), Fugl–Meyer Assessment Upper Extremity (FMA-UE), Fugl–Meyer Assessment balance subscale (FMA-B) and Modified Barthel Index (MBI) used for evaluation and comparison before and after treatment.

Before treatment, the ROM, FMA-UE, FMA-B and MBI scores in the two groups had no statistical significance ( P > 0.05). But after four weeks of treatment, the two groups had a significant improvement in the four scores ( P < 0.05). What is more, patients in the experimental group improved significantly more than those in the control group. The difference between the two groups is statistically significant ( P < 0.05).

The core stabilization training combined with virtual reality can improve the upper limb activity range and balance function after stroke. At the same time it can obviously improve patients’ upper extremity motor function and quality of life.