View clinical trials related to Cerebral Palsy.
Filter by:Recent evidence suggested that Action Observation Therapy (AOT), based on observation of actions followed by immediate reproduction, could be a useful rehabilitative strategy for promoting functional recovery of children affected by Unilateral Cerebral Palsy (UCP). The AOT is based on the discovery of mirror neurons, a class of visuomotor neurons that are activated when the individual performs a targeted action, both when observing the same action performed by another individual. An important assumption of AOT is that the mirror system, thanks to its visuomotor properties, is able to coordinate visual information with the observer's motor experience. Indeed, the actions outside the individual's behavioral repertoire are elaborated and categorized only on the basis of visual characteristics, without inducing any phenomenon of motor resonance in the observer's brain. Therefore, given the deficiency of their motor repertoire, children affected by UCP could have a reduced activation of the mirror system during the observation of actions performed by healthy subjects. Nevertheless, this activation could increase during the observation of the same actions performed by a subject with similar motor strategies, due to a similar form of hemiplegia. The present project is a randomized controlled clinical trial to verify the influence of the observed model on the effectiveness of AOT in the rehabilitation of the affected upper limb in children with UCP. In particular, the study will verify whether the rehabilitation through AOT based on a pathological model (improving the patient's current abilities) gives more results than AOT based on a typical (healthy) development model, as reported by all the documented researches in literature. Furthermore, to investigate the functional reorganization of the sensorimotor system after rehabilitative treatment, a subgroup of participants will be subjected to a fMRI session (Functional Magnetic Resonance), to verify functional changes, comparing data before and after AOT.
To target spasticity, balance and mobility whole body vibration exercises along with selected physical therapy is given to experimental group. Control group will receive only selected physical therapy that includes sstretching exercises, gait training, ffacilitation of postural reactions, ffacilitation of standing and weight shift and facilitation of standing balance by using a balance board.
This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of masticatory muscles electrical stimulation on oromotor skills, feeding level progress and child growth in children with dyaphagia. Forty children diagnosed as spastic cerebral palsy, from both genders, age ranging from 2 to 5 years were enrolled in the current study. They were randomly allocated in to study group (A) received oromotor exercises and neuromuscular electrical stimulation on masseter and digastric muscles and control group (B) received same exercises but placebo electrical stimulation. The result showed significant improvement in all variables in both groups. However, the study group showed significant different in feeding level in compare with control group.
Children with cerebral palsy are frequently supplied with Ankle Foot Orthoses (AFOs) to aid their walking. There are huge benefits to patients in staying physically active into adulthood but this becomes more challenging as children progress through adolescence. It is possible to measure the functional benefits of AFO use, however the investigators suspect the correlation with patient compliance is poor. By combining quantitative analysis using 3D gait analysis with qualitative exploration of children's experience the investigators hope to gain a better understanding of the factors influencing children's compliance. This compliance will be measured using sensors mounted in the AFOs, over a 3 month period. The investigators hope this research will help clinicians manage patients better and also inform changes in splint design.
The patients at our Prosthetics and Orthotics Outpatient Clinic who have had an ankle-foot orthosis for at least one year will fill in the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC Scale) for wearing the orthosis and for not wearing the orthosis. They will also answer a mini survey about falls in order to determine whether they have fallen within the last 6 months.
The main purpose with this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a garment with integrated electrodes for multifocal transcutaneous electrical stimulation intended for treatment of spasticity in children with cerebral palsy.
Pain management in pediatric patients presents a difficult challenge. Unlike adults, pediatric patients often cannot communicate their pain management needs clearly. Adequate pain control after surgery is pivotal for these patients in order to prevent negative physiologic and psychologic complications and to improve surgical outcomes. There is an ongoing shift away from the use of opioids in the post-operative setting due to both their negative side effects and their high potential for dependence and abuse. A variety of new techniques of multimodal pain management have been developed and utilized in elective orthopaedic procedures. Injection of local anesthetics is becoming a widely popular technique utilized in adult arthroplasty. This technique blocks pain directly at the site of injection, and therefore can improve post-operative pain while minimizing side effects. Evidence has demonstrated this technique to be both safe and effective, resulting in reduced opioid consumption post-operatively. However, this technique has not been studied for use in pediatric patients, a population in which reduced narcotic use is equally, if not more important than in adult patients. This study is a prospective, randomized controlled trial with 2 parallel arms. The goal of this study is to assess the efficacy of a surgical-site pain injection administered in pediatric patients with cerebral palsy undergoing major hip surgery. Patients who are scheduled to undergo surgery will be randomized to either intervention (injection of a pain cocktail) or placebo (injection of normal saline). The pain cocktail includes three medications: ropivacaine (a local anesthetic), ketorolac (an anti-inflammatory medication), and epinephrine (a medication to constrict blood vessels and increase the duration of action of any co-administered medications). A surgeon who is blinded to treatment group will administer the injection at the end of the procedure, prior to the patient waking from anesthesia. The injection is in addition to our typical multi-modal pain control protocol, which includes epidural anesthesia, acetaminophen, anti-inflammatories, oral narcotics and anti-spasmodic agents. Patients will then be monitored post-operatively and pain medication consumption (both while in the hospital post-operatively and for the first two weeks following discharge), patient-reported and/or nurse-recorded pain scores, length of hospital stay, and adverse effects will be recorded. At the first post-operative visit, patients' parents will be asked to complete a survey designed to assess parent satisfaction with their child's pain management after surgery. Patients, parents, and surgeons will be blinded to treatment group allocation. Data will be collected while the patient is in the hospital, after surgery (average duration 3-4 days), and at the first post-operative visit two to three weeks after surgery.
To analyze the relationship between the early diagnosis of cerebral palsy with the risk factors of this pathology in moderate and late premature infants
Cerebral palsy (CP) is defined as a non-progressive lesion of the developing foetal or infant brain and causes variety of motor, sensory and cognitive impairments. Hemiplegic CP is the most common type of CP in term infants, involving one half of the body. In these individuals, muscle tone is reduced, and there is an inability to perform quality upper extremity movements due to increased muscle tone, increased reflexes, weakness in antagonist muscles. Due to spasticity upper extremity is present in shoulder adduction and internal rotation, elbow flexion and pronation, wrist and fingers flexed and thumb in palm position. Spontaneous movements of the upper extremity are decreased and abnormal. These individuals have a reduced upper extremity function ranging from mild incompetence to almost no use of the hand. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is designed to improve the function of the most affected limb by restricting the use of the less affected limb in individuals with unilateral upper extremity involvement and implementing an intensive motor learning-based training program. In pediatric subjects, modified CIMT (mCIMT), which is called a 'child-friendly technique', has been applied, which shows some differences from the form of CIMT in adults. In mCIMT, the restriction time was reduced, activities with the child were performed within a play frame, in the environment in which the child was accustomed, and restriction methods such as gloves, splint, sling were used. In the literature CIMT has been used mainly in children with hemiplegic CP in the pediatric population. However, there are many studies in the literature evaluating the efficacy of mCIMT in individuals with hemiplegic CP and showing beneficial effects on upper extremity speed and skills, and the duration of application restriction varies considerably. The aim of the investigator's study was to determine the effect of consecutive or intermittent implementation of mCIMT on upper extremity function in children with hemiplegic CP. Thus, it will be determined whether the modification of the duration of administration in the pediatric population varies in treatment results.
A double-blinded randomized controlled crossover trial will be conducted, and all participants will undertake non-immersive VR tasks and tDCS-active or tDCS-sham. Group 1 will start with ten sessions of tDSC-active combined to VR tasks. After one-month washout, this group will be reallocated to another 10 sessions with tDCS-sham combined to VR tasks. In contrast, Group 2 will do the opposite protocol (participants will start allocated to ten sessions of TDCS-sham and VR tasks, and after one-month washout period will be reallocated to ten sessions of tDCS-active and VR tasks). All protocol will have the assessment of Autonomic Nervous System, through Heart Rate Variability Analysis.