The effectiveness of rehabilitation of children 5-8 years old with spastic forms of cerebral palsy, according to clinical assessment and thermal imaging

Abstract

In order to assess the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures, a comprehensive examination was conducted using standardized scales and thermal imaging in two groups of patients aged 5–8 years old with spastic forms of cerebral palsy. The sample consisted of 10 children with a diagnosis of G80.1 and 10 with a diagnosis of G80.2, the degree of impaired motor function levels 1 and 2 according to GMFCS. Rehabilitation interventions were carried out for one year in stationary (two times a year, courses of 14 days), outpatient (2–3 courses of massage for 10 days, botulinum therapy) and home (daily exercise) conditions. The complex included physical therapy, kinesiotherapy, mechanotherapy, physiotherapy and reflextherapy, massage, classes with a speech therapist and defectologist, if necessary — pharmacotherapy. A discrepancy in a number of cases of thermal imaging and clinical results of treatment is received, the attempt of theoretical explanation of these discrepancies is made. The possibilities of thermal imaging evaluation of treatment effectiveness in children with spastic forms of cerebral palsy, which allows to count on success in the development of working methods of convenient, non-invasive and high-precision method of objectification of motor disorders at the stages of rehabilitation, are demonstrated. Further improvement of the proposed approach is promising in terms of creating a reliable means of validating standardized clinical scales and questionnaires.