Effects of Treadmill Training on Gross Motor Function, Spasticity and Gait Speed in Ambulatory Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Background: Cerebral palsy is described as a permanent, non-progressive disorder related to neurodevelopmental abnormalities in an underdeveloped brain which leads to additional brain lesions resulting in secondary motor disturbances and postural abnormalities

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of treadmill training on gross motor function, spasticity and gait speed in ambulatory children with spastic cerebral palsy.

Methodology: It was a Randomized clinical trial, which was done in Bahria International Hospital, Lahore by convenient sampling technique. A sample size of 50 patients were divided into two groups. Patients in Group A underwent conventional physiotherapy, whereas those in Group B received a specialized treadmill training program tailored for children with spastic cerebral palsy, alongside their standard physical therapy sessions.

Result: Our data is normally distributed so wo applied Independent sample t test for between group analysis which shows that mean of group A at baseline is 5.40±0.49 and group B is 5.20±0.76, at 6th weeks group A is 4.80±0.48 and group B is 4.33±.0.88and at 12th weeks group A is 3.93±0.58 and group B is 2.13±0.68.p-value shows that there is no significant difference between two groups at baseline and at 6th weeks but at 12th weeks there is a significant differences as p-value is less than 0.00.Repeated measure ANOVA shows both groups shows significant results but meand difference of treadmill training group were more in all outcome.

Conclusion: - Our study concludes that treadmill training, along with physiotherapy, is beneficial for children with spastic cerebral palsy in improving gross motor function, spasticity, and gait speed.

Keywords: Treadmill exercise, Gait, Spasticity, cerebral palsy