Effects of Hand and Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy Including Lower Extremity (HABIT-ILE) on upper extremity range of motions in children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy

Details

Supervisors

Bleyenheuft, Yannick ; Ebner Karestinos, Daniela Silvia

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de la motricité

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de la motricité, orientation générale

Abstract

Background: Hand and arm bimanual intensive therapy including lower extremity (HABIT-ILE) is a recent intensive rehabilitation method proved efficient to improve children with Unilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy (USCP) functional independence in daily life. However little is known about its effect on the paretic upper extremity (UE) range of motion (ROM) impairments which are a challenging goal for physiotherapists. This study aimed to investigate the effect of HABIT-ILE on ROMs of the paretic UE in children with USCP. Methods: Twenty-one children with USCP participated in a sleepover camp of HABIT-ILE intervention during summer 2011 and 2012 in Belgium. Children’s paretic UE ROMs were measured in the wrist, elbow, forearm and shoulder joints, before and after treatment with a classical goniometer. Active (aROM), passive (pROM) ROMs and angle of catch (AoC) were measured. Test-retest analysis was performed to check stability of measures over time. Paired t-test was used for pre-post intervention comparison of ROMs. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was set as statistically significant. Results: Analyses showed mainly a significant increase in aROM, pROM and AoC for wrist extension which was the most functionally restricted at baseline. The other joints showed no increase or decrease of ROMs after treatment. Test-retest reliability for ROMs measures was excellent