Assessment of the flexibility of children with spastic cerebral palsy after physiotherapeutic intervention

Abstract

Introduction: Physiotherapy favors flexibility and reduce the spasticity of children with spastic cerebral palsy. Objectives: To evaluate the benefits of conventional physiotherapy to improve the flexibility of the posterior muscle chain in the short and long term of children with spastic cerebral palsy. Methods: participated six patients with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy, age of six to 14 years, both genders. There were 16 sessions of conventional physiotherapy with passive stretching. For the assessment of flexibility, the sit and reach test was applied using the Wells’s box before and after each session. For statistical analysis, Sigma-Stat® Software version 3.5 was used with statistical significance (p <0.05). Results: There was a significant increase in the flexibility of the posterior mus - cular chain of the children when comparing pre and post individually (p <0.05) and the mean before and after the sessions (P <0.0001). Conclusion: Conventional physiotherapy through passive stretching exercises improves the flexibility of the posterior muscular chain of children with spastic Cerebral Palsy in the short or long term.