Abstract

Background Cerebral palsy (CP) remains the most common cause of physical disability in children that results from a static brain lesion during pregnancy or early life. Although the brain lesion is static, the physical manifestations and medical issues may progress, leading to altered motor patterns. Objective The aim of the study was to assess gross motor progress in children with spastic (quadriplegic and diplegic) CP treated with intensive physical therapy (PT) as compared with a matched group treated with a standard PT regimen. Patients and methods Out of 45 patients with spastic CP aged 2-6 years, 25 patients were assigned to an intensive therapy group (group A), whereas 20 patients were assigned to standard therapy (control group B). Patients were classified according to the gross motor function classification system. The intervention program was administered for 16 weeks, with sitting and walking as the treatment goal. The gross motor function measures 88 and 66 (GMFM-88 and GMFM-66) and gross motor performance measure (GMPM) were used for assessment at baseline, at 8 weeks, and at 16 weeks after intervention. Results At baseline, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. After 8 weeks, there were significant differences between the two groups as regards the total scores of GMFM-88 and GMPM (P 0.05). Conclusion Intensive PT regimens were more beneficial than standard therapy in spastic CP, especially in children with a low functional level.

Highlights

  • Cerebral palsy (CP) represents a group of permanent disorders in the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation attributed to nonprogressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain

  • All dimensions of the gross motor function measure (GMFM)-88 were increased in both groups, as shown in Tables 2 and 3

  • No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups as regards the GMFM-66 after 8 weeks (P > 0.05), whereas significant differences were found after 16 weeks (P < 0.05) (Table 4)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Cerebral palsy (CP) represents a group of permanent disorders in the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation attributed to nonprogressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The gross motor function in children with CP has been conceptualized as having two main features: function and performance. Function indicates the ability to accomplish certain motor activity. The gross motor function classification system (GMFCS) was developed in response to having a standardized system for describing and classifying the severity of movement disability among children with CP [4]. Cerebral palsy (CP) remains the most common cause of physical disability in children that results from a static brain lesion during pregnancy or early life. The brain lesion is static, the physical manifestations and medical issues may progress, leading to altered motor patterns

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call