Effects of Lower Limb Strength Training and Functional Training in Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and
posture. Spastic cerebral palsy is classified into three categories as spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy, spastic
diplegic cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegic palsy. There are various treatment approaches that can be
followed such as physical therapy, oro-motor rehab, modalities and myofascial release. Need of this study was
to know about strength and functional training protocols that can be useful to the children of spastic cerebral
palsy[2]. Another need of this study is that there are limited studies on this topic, this study can help in achieving
result in minimum time with speeding rehabilitation of these cerebral palsy children[3]. In this study, changing
of muscle strength and functional ability were seen from pre-treatment to post-treatment scoring done by MAS
with respect to gross motor functions and MTUG with respect to gross motor functions[1].
Based on this study we could infer that treatment protocol which is focused on both strength and functional
training simultaneously, have better results in achieving gross motor function levels as compared to individual
treatment protocol group[2]. We believe that if various technologies such as virtual reality devices or equipment
and other modalities such as functional electrical stimulator, can come into practice, that can enhance the
rehabilitation. Although the sample size was limited to 15 patients, but we could see the improvement to be
statistically significant.