Objectives. A retrospective study was conducted to investigate differences in the functional outcome between patients with left cerebrovascular accident (left CVA) and right cerebrovascular accident (right CVA) in wheelchair transfer performance. It was hypothesized that the level of improvement in left CVA and right CVA groups of patients would not be the same, due to the different constellation of neurological impairments.

Method. Data were obtained from the admission and discharge scores on the Functional Independence Measure of 100 male patients, 50 with left CVA and 50 with right CVA.

Results. Both groups demonstrated a statistically significant improvement between admission and discharge for wheelchair to bed, wheelchair to toilet, and wheelchair to tub or shower transfer (p < .001). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups at admission or discharge for any of the three transfer, even after statistical removal of the effects of age, number of days from onset at stroke to rehabilitation, and number of days in rehabilitation.

Conclusion. The lack of difference between the groups at time of discharge may have obscured a difference in the rate of transfer learning during the course of rehabilitation.