Objective To investigate the effect of surface electromyogram signal (SES) on home-based rehabilitation for stroke patients.Methods A total of 78 stroke inpatients who were treated in our hospital from July 2014 to June 2015 were enrolled and equally divided into treatment group and conventional group using the SPSS software. The treatment group received SES-guided home-based rehabilitation, while the conventional group received non-SES-guided home-based rehabilitation. The simplified Fugl-Meyer Motor Function Scale (FMA) and root mean square (RMS) were used to assess upper limb function and muscle contraction strength, respectively.Results There were no significant differences in FMA or RMS score between the two groups before rehabilitation (P>0.001). After rehabilitation, both FMA and RMS scores were significantly elevated in the two groups (P<0.001); the treatment group had significantly higher FMA and RMS scores than the conventional group (P=0.02 and P=0.018).Conclusions SES-guided adjustment of rehabilitation plan during treatment can improve motor function recovery.