Short and Long-Term Effects of Whole-Body Vibration on Spasticity and Motor Performance in Children With Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the short and long-term effects of Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) therapy on spasticity and motor performance in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy. We recruited 26 patient participants from among children undergoing conventional physiotherapy in a private rehabilitation center. We randomly assigned 22 participants to equally sized treatment (n = 11) and control (n = 11) groups. We evaluated the participants at the beginning of the study with the Gross Motor Function Measure-88, LEGSys (TM) Spatio-Temporal Gait Analyzer, SportKAT550 (TM) Portable Computerized Kinesthetic Balance Device and the Modified Ashworth Scale. While children in the treatment group were treated with Compex-Winplate (TM) to administer WBV in three 15-minute sessions per week for eight weeks, children in the control group received continued conventional physiotherapy during this period. We then re-evaluated all participants both immediately after the treatment and again 12 weeks after the treatment. Following WBV, both gross motor functions and gait and balance skills were significantly improved (p < 0.05), and spasticity in lower and upper extremity muscles was significantly inhibited (p < 0.05). These improvements were preserved even after 12 weeks. We conclude that WBV is an effective incremental approach to conventional physiotherapy in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy for inhibiting spasticity and improving motor performance.