Assessment And Therapy Of Trunk Control Ability In Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Objective To study the trunk stability controlling, visual compensatory, theanterior-posterior, medial-lateral symmetry in spastic cerebral palsy patients. Toinvestigate the effect of comprehensive rehabilitation in trunk control ability ofcerebral palsy by analyzing the efficacy of trunk control training.Methods Trunk stability and symmetry parameters of20spastic cerebral palsy patientsand20health control subjects were assessed by PK254P rehabilitation system instandard silent sitting for30s in eyes-opened and eyes-closed. The variables ofanterior-posterior(AP) standard deviation of center of pressure(COP), medial-lateral(ML) standard deviation of COP, average AP speed of COP, average ML speed of COP,perimeter of COP, and ellipse area of COP were used in determining the trunk stability.Also the average position of COP in X axis and Y axis represented the symmetry ofweight distribution. Reassessment of the same variables is finished after six months oftrunk control training, including physical therapy (PT) and balancer therapy.Comprehensive evaluation of trunk control training will generate with the statisticalanalysis before and after treatment.Results The spastic cerebral palsy patients’ postural sways (anterior-posterior(AP)standard deviation of center of pressure(COP), medial-lateral (ML) standard deviationof COP, average AP speed of COP, average ML speed of COP, perimeter of COP, and ellipse area of COP) were greater than health subjects(P<0.05) in both eyes-opened andeyes-closed. Also the difference in eyes-opened and eyes-closed of the trunk stabilitycontrol parameters was bigger than control subjects （P<0.05）.The offset ofmedial-lateral in spastic cerebral palsy patients is nearly symmetrical(average positionof COP in X axis close to zero), but the offset of anterior-posterior tends to theanterior(average position of COP in Y axis significantly greater than zero). The offsetof medial-lateral and anterior-posterior in health subjects are nearly symmetrical(average position of COP in X axis and Y axis close to zero). The difference of Trunkstability parameter before and after Trunk control treatment is of statisticallysignificance (P<0.05). The difference of the anterior-posterior offset Symmetryparameters before and after Trunk control treatment is statistically significant (P<0.05).Conclusions The trunk stability control of spastic cerebral palsy patients is inferior tothat of health subjects. The role of visual compensatory in trunk control stability isgreater than control subjects. The offset of medial-lateral is nearly symmetrical, but theoffset of anterior-posterior tends to the anterior. Balance ability training and physicaltherapy effectively improve trunk control in children with cerebral palsy. In cerebralpalsy children receiving treatment，objective and quantitative assessment of trunkcontrol efficacy is available with balance instrument.