Effect of Backward Treadmill Training on Genurecurvatum in Cerebral Palsied Children

Abstract Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is described as a group of disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. Many patients with CP walk with a knee recurvatum pattern. A recurvatum gait can also be quite disabling and has been reported to cause proximal tibial deformity. Knee recur-vatum has been described to occur in 8% to 40% of patients with CP. Aim of Study: To determine effect of backward treadmill training on genurecurvatum in cerebral palsied children. Subjects: Thirty ambulant cerebral palsied children were selected by simple random way for this study from outpatient clinic of Al Shohadaa Central Hospital. Their ages ranged from 4-8 years. Their knee hyperextension ranged from 10 to 20 degrees in X-ray. No other knee deformities, surgical intervention or fractures. They were assigned randomly into two groups equal in number, each group consisted of 15 children; Group A: They received backward treadmill gait training exercise for thirty minutes for three times per week over three successive months with a specifically designed physical therapy program for one hour for each child, three times weekly, over three months. Group B: They received only the same designed physical therapy program given to group A. Material and Methods: All children's baseline data (radi-ological evaluation) were collected before and after treatments. Results: There was a statistically high significant decrease in the mean value of knee joint angle of both groups (A and B) where (p-value <0.0001) measured by X ray and this high significant reduction is in favor of group (A). Conclusion: This article shows that backward treadmill training with a specifically designed physical therapy program considered to be a safe, easy to use and very effective physical therapy program on genurecurvatum in cerebral palsied children.