The Effect of Therapeutic Electrical Stimulation in Children with Diplegic Cerebral Palsy as Measured by Gait Analysis

The present work was designed as a controlled longitudinal study to test the hypothesis that therapeutic electrical stimulation (TES) to the lower limb muscles of children with cerebral palsy (CP) can improve the quality of gait of these children. Diplegic CP was selected for this study, so that one leg served as the study leg and the other as a control. Four diplegic CP children (mean age 7.7 ± 2 years) took part. TES was delivered to the quadriceps and dorsiflexors of the right legs in 20 minutes sessions, 4 times a week for a total period of six to ten weeks. Gait assessment was made on a 3 m walkway, fitted with parallel bars. Stride length, knee and ankle range and average stride velocity were measured and compared be-fore and after TES treatment and between the stimulated and the unstimulated legs. Results indicated that although the effect of electrical stimulation varied from one subject to the ot-her, an overall improvement in gait quality occurred as reflected by the positive changes in the following walking variables. Stride length and Stride velocity improved in three out of the four subjects, although some of the changes were not statistically significant. Range of knee motion generally improved in all four subjects. Also the ankle range of motion impro