Children with spastic diplegic Cerebral Palsy (CP) often show motor impairment due to a number of deficits; including poor muscle control, weakness, spasticity and reduced range of motion in the extremities. All these factors affect the ability of children with CP to maintain balance and walk which are the primary rehabilitation concerns of parents and clinicians. The Balance Trainer provides a safe balance environment and assists with muscle activation of ankle and hip joints, and it is hypothesized that to promote spasticity inhibition, the use of TENS may decrease hyper-excitability, modulate reciprocal inhibition, and increase presynaptic inhibition. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current study is the first research to investigate the effect of using Biodex balance training with TENS in improving children with spastic diplegia.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
40
children will receive Biodex balance training with TENS for 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week for 4 weeks
children will receive Biodex balance training with placebo TENS for the same period.
Faculty of Physical Therapy
Giza, Egypt
hip adductor spasticity
spasticity of hip adductors will be measured by the Modified Ashworth Scale. Modified ashworth scale grades of spasticity are as follows: 0 = normal muscle tone; 1= slight increase in muscle tone, manifested by catch and release or by minimal resistance at the end; 1+ = slight increase in muscle tone, manifested by a catch, followed by minimal resistance throughout; 2= more marked increase in muscle tone, but limb easily flexed; 3= considerable increase in muscle tone, passive movement difficult; and 4 = limb rigid in flexion or extension.
Time frame: change from base line at 4 weeks.
spatio-temporal gait parameters
Spatiotemporal gait parameters (Walking Speed (WS) (m/s), Step Length (SL) (cm) and the Stance Time (ST) (%) on each limb) using GAITRite system which has excellent reliability for measuring most spatio-temporal gait parameters. The GAITRite is a 700 cm × 90 cm electronic walkway with an active sensor area of 610 cm long and 60 cm wide. The active area contains 23,040 embedded pressure-activated sensors with a spatial resolution of 1.27 cm and a sampling rate of 120 Hz. All data was processed and stored by an IBM compatible computer using GAITRite® gold, Version 3.2b software.
Time frame: change from base line at 4 weeks.
balance assessment
anteroposterior stability index, mediolateral stability index, and overall stability index will be measured using Biodex balance system. Biodex Stability System has an intertester intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) equals 0.70 and an intratester ICCs equals 0.82. Biodex Stability System formed of a dynamic platform that allows movements to occur around the anterior-posterior (AP) and mediallateral (ML) axes simultaneously. Biodex Stability System has a screen displaying the child's position on it and a support handle that can be adjusted according to each child's height. The screen gives visual feedback about the degree of tilting that helps the child to maintain the cursor in the center of the screen to obtain a good score of balance. The higher the scores, the poorer the balance of the child
Time frame: change from base line at 4 weeks
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