Effectiveness of physical therapy interventions for children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) describes a group of permanent disorders of motor development and posture that cause limiting activity that are attributed to non-progressive dysfunctions occurring in the development of fetal brain or of the child.
The main purpose of the paper is to study the clinical and functional aspects with implications in the design and evaluation of the complex recovery therapy of the child with psycho-neuro-motor disabilities diagnosed with infantile cerebral palsy (ICP).
The study took place during the period June 2016 - March 2018, is of the type prospectively and comprised 5 children diagnosed with ICP, aged 4 to 12 years. Criteria for inclusion in the recovery group: children diagnosed with infantile cerebral palsy form spastic tetra- spastic, without orthopedic surgery, during the study period. Children have been given a comprehensive assessment of body attitude, upper and lower limb hypertonia, upper limbs functionality, and global motor function.
The major objective of recovering the child with infantile cerebral palsy was to improve the quality of life by creating conditions for minimum patient autonomy. The functional recovery program was carried out three times a week using exercises and methods of neuro-motor rehabilitation. Duration of the session was 50-60 min.
Due to the results obtained at the initial and final evaluation, a tonus improvement was observed in all the tested muscles, with a decrease in the mobilization resistance of all the muscle groups. In global functional evaluation the total score on the 5 sections of the 5 children with CP had an initial mean value of 34.92 (± 16.60) and a final of 47.72 (± 26.53)
Stretching, neuro-motor reeducation methods and active physical exercises help to increase the degree of the functional  independence.