To Compare the Effectiveness of Active Stretching and Eccentric Training on Hamstrings Spasticity in Spastic Cerebral Palsy Children

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of Active-Stretching and Eccentric Training on Hamstrings spasticity in spastic cerebral palsy children. Design: Experimental Study Participants: 30 patients with cerebral palsy in the age group of 4-18 years (Modified Ashworth Scale till Grade 2) participated in this study. Intervention: All the patients were randomly selected from the OPD of Physiotherapy clinic after signing of consent form they were given 1 week rehabilitation protocol of Active Stretching(Group A) and Eccentric Strengthening(Group B). Modified Tardieu Scale, Popliteal Angle and GMFM Score were used to assess the spasticity. Main outcome measures: Modified Tardieu Scale, Popliteal Angle and GMFM Score. Result: On Day 1 and Day 7 Modified Tardieu Scale (MTS) was administered for Hamstrings, GMFM score -D (STANDING) was taken and Popliteal Angle was measured. To compare the values of MTS, GMFM and Popliteal angle at the end of 1 week in each group, repeated measure ANOVA was used. Further multivariate test was used to see the measure of strength of association and level of significance in each group. Conclusion: This study concludes that Eccentric Training has better improvement of Modified Tardieu Scale (MTS), GMFM Score and Popliteal Angle, over Active Stretching in reducing the Hamstrings muscle spasticity over a 1 week training program. Hence this study accepts the hypothesis that “Eccentric training is more effective than Active Stretching on Hamstrings spasticity in spastic cerebral palsy.