Effectiveness of Vestibular Stimulation on Balance Using Swing Therapy in Children with Hypotonic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Background: Hypotonic cerebral palsy is the non-progressive neurodevelopmental disorder of the immature brain that covers a board spectrum of syndromes which is related to motor and postural impairment, and balance problems during both gross and fine motor activities.Objective: To assess the effectiveness of vestibular stimulation on balance using swing therapy in children with hypotonic cerebral palsy. Methods: A single-blinded randomized clinical trial was conducted on sample of 52 patients with level-II motor functions on gross motor function classification system (GMFCS). All other types of cerebral palsy like Spastic, Athetoid and Ataxic were excluded from the study. Simple random sampling technique was used, data was collected from subjects visiting to Pediatric Physical Therapy Department, and randomly allocated into two groups; comprising 26 patients in each via lottery method. The Group A was treated with vestibular stimulation for balance by swing therapy and conventional methods of rehabilitation including; walking on parallel bars, proper positioning and stretching exercises and while in group B only conventional techniques was used. Swing therapy was given for total 8 weeks on alternate days for 15 minutes and post intervention effect was recorded on pediatric balance scale. Results: The mean age of patients was 5.83±1.92 years. For Group A and B, pre-treatment mean on pediatric balance scale was 3.07±1.24 and 3.03±1.31 and post-treatment mean was 1.51±1.72 and 2.69±1.61. The measured value of “t” score was (-3.76) and “P” value was (0.001) showing significant change, as this was less than the reference value 0.05. Conclusion: The current study concluded that swing therapy when integrated with other conventional methods of rehabilitation proved to be effective in improving balance in children with hypotonic cerebral palsy.