Amélioration des paramètres spatio-temporels de la marche par le renforcement musculaire des membres inférieurs chez des enfants atteints de paralysie cérébrale spastique

Purpose

Cerebral palsy is the most common motor impairment in children, with a prevalence ranging from 1.5 to 3.8 per 1000 births from one country to another. Many studies highlight the benefits of physical activity in cerebral palsy. Here we study its impact on the spatio-temporal parameters of walking.

Material and methods

The search was conducted on PubMed with the keywords « Cerebral Palsy », « Exercises » and « Walking ». Fourty-nine articles were studied and 5 were selected to be analysed in depth. The study population comprises of children and teenagers with spastic cerebral palsy aged 6 to 16. The targeted intervention is the strengthening of lower body muscles through various exercises with and without specific equipment.

Results

Samples range from 15 to 30 children aged 6 to 16. GMFCS scores range from I to IV. The exercises are offered 3 to 5 times a week with an exercise duration of 25 to 70 min per session. The studies were conducted for 6 to 12 weeks. Different measurement scales were used, one before and one after the intervention. Two studies used a third measure one month before the intervention.

Conclusion

An improvement in the spatio-temporal parameters of walking was observed in all studies; more specifically in walking speed, step length and walking rate. The limitations of these studies are that the samples are small and very heterogeneous. The long-term benefits of these interventions would also be interesting to study.