Treino de marcha em esteira ergométrica para crianças com paralisia cerebral: ensaio clínico controlado aleatorizado e cego

Abstract

The objective of the study was to compare the effects of treadmill training with gait training ground on functionality and cardiopulmonary fitness in children with cerebral palsy. A prospective, analytic, paired, controlled, randomized and evaluator-blind. Thirty-five children with cerebral palsy (levels I-III of Gross Motor Functional Classification System) randomly divided into two intervention groups. Experimental group (17 children) submitted to treadmill training without partial weight support. Control group (18 children) submitted to gait training on ground without weight support. Training was performed for 14 consecutive weeks (two sessions per week), with four subsequent weeks of follow up. Both groups demonstrated improvements on the Six-Minute Walk Test (experimental group: 227.4±49.4 to 377.2±93.0m; control group: 222.6±42.6 to 268.0±45.0m), Timed Up-and-Go Test (experimental group: 14.3±2.9 to 7.8±2.2s; control group: 12.8±2.2 to 10.5±2.5s), functional performance (experimental group: 128.0±19.9 to 139.0±18.4; control group: 120.8±19.0 to 125.8±12.2), gross motor function (experimental group: 81.6±8.7 to 93.0±5.7; control group: 77.3±7.0 to 80.8±7.2), functional balance (experimental group: 34.9±8.5 to 46.7±7.6; control group: 31.9±7.0 to 35.7±6.8) after treatment. The experimental group demonstrated greater improvements than the control group both after treatment and during follow up (p<0.05). These results allow concluding that treadmill training without partial weight support proved more effective than gait training on ground on functionality and cardiopulmonary fitness in children with cerebral palsy levels I to III the GMFCS. Trial registration: RBR-5v3kg9 (Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry - ReBec).