The Effect of Quadriceps Femoris Muscle Strengthening Exercises on Spasticity in Children With Cerebral Palsy

• Published in: Physical therapy Vol. 81; no. 6; pp. 1215 - 1223
• Main Authors: Fowler, E G, Ho, T W, Nwigwe, A I, Dorey, F J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Therapy Association 01.06.2001; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Adolescent; Care and treatment; Cerebral palsied children; Cerebral palsy; Cerebral Palsy - diagnosis; Cerebral Palsy - rehabilitation; Child; Children; Confidence Intervals; Electromyography; Exercise; Exercise Therapy - methods; Female; Humans; Male; Measurement; Methods; Muscle Contraction; Muscle Spasticity - diagnosis; Muscle Spasticity - rehabilitation; Muscle strength; Muscle, Skeletal; Muscular system; Physical therapy; Physical therapy for children; Physical Therapy Modalities - methods; Probability; Reference Values; Sensitivity and Specificity; Severity of Illness Index; Treatment Outcome; United States
• ISSN: 0031-9023; 1538-6724
• DOI: 10.1093/ptj/81.6.1215

The Bobath neurodevelopmental treatment approach advised against the use of resistive exercise, as proponents felt that increased effort would increase spasticity. The purpose of this study was to test the premise that the performance of exercises with maximum efforts will increase spasticity in people with cerebral palsy (CP). Spasticity, in the present study, was defined as a velocity-dependent hyperexcitability of the muscle stretch reflex. Twenty-four subjects with the spastic diplegic form of CP (mean age=11.4 years, SD=3.0, range=7-17) and 12 subjects without known neurological impairments (mean age=11.6 years, SD=3.5, range=7-17) were assessed. Knee muscle spasticity was assessed bilaterally using the pendulum test to elicit a stretch reflex immediately before and after 3 different forms of right quadriceps femoris muscle exercise (isometric, isotonic, and isokinetic) during a single bout of exercise training. Pendulum test outcome measures were: (1) first swing excursion, (2) number of lower leg oscillations, and (3) duration of the oscillations. There were no changes in spasticity following exercise between the 2 groups of subjects. These results do not support the premise that exercises with maximum efforts increase spasticity in people with CP.