Effect of robot-assisted gait training on motor functions in adolescent and young adult patients with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND

Robot-assisted gait training (RAGT) allows an intensive gait training in patients with cerebral palsy (CP). There are few evidences on the effectiveness of RAGT in adults with CP.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the effect of RAGT on gross motor function in adolescent and adult patients with bilateral spastic CP and to compare the effect of RAGT with conventional kinesiotherapy.

METHODS

Forty-seven patients (mean age 21.2±5.33 years) with bilateral spastic CP were divided into two groups. Twenty-one patients underwent 20 therapeutic units of RAGT and 26 patients underwent 20 therapeutic units of conventional therapy/training (CON). The following parameters were evaluated before (V1) and after the therapy (V2): dimension A (lying and rolling), B (sitting), C (crawling and kneeling), D (standing), E (walking, running and jumping) of the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-88). In patients in the experimental RAGT group, these parameters were also evaluated 3-4 months later (V3).

RESULTS

Comparing the mean improvements in endpoints in both groups (RAGT vs. CON) after 20 TUs, we observed the statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) and large effect size in all GMFM dimensions and total GMFM improvement in favour of the RAGT group. In RAGT patients, the improvement persisted even 3-4 months after RAGT (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

We demonstrated that the intensive RAGT regimen is more effective than conventional therapy in terms of improvements in gross motor functions in adolescent and adult patients with bilateral spastic CP.