Tolerance of a Motorized Orthosis Reproducing Walking Movement vs Conventional Standing-up Devices in Child With CP

In the researchers' words

Cerebral palsy (CP) includes all the sensorimotor development disorders leading to balance, gait and movement disruptions. These disorders are related to lesions of the central nervous system (CNS) that occurs at birth or during the early childhood. The therapeutic management of CP is essentially based on reeducation, but may also require specific medical treatments, orthopedic devices and sometimes bone surgery. Therefore, CP children are very often placed in specialized institutions with a significant socioeconomic impact. CP children suffer from various sensorimotor impairments, which may evolve into orthopedic deformations, justifying the implementation of restrictive devices. The French High Authority of Health (HAS) estimates that 50 % of CP children have pains when using contention or verticalization devices. These pains are mainly nociceptive and are caused by the passive constraint applied on contact points. Many clinical trials evaluating the physiotherapy benefits on CP patients have led to controversial results regarding the duration of the effect of this therapeutic approach. However, the improvement is more important when neuromuscular facilitation techniques are added to the reeducation program. Human neuronal adaptation and plasticity mechanisms are now understood, with the possibility of a potential partial recovery. Non-invasive stimulation methods and…