Title: Efficacy of Myofascial Release Technique in Comparison with Passive Stretching in Reducing Spasticity in children with Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Ujwal Bhattacharya, Dr Nirmal Chandra Bhattacharyya, Urvashi Bhattacharya
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i11.120
Abstract
Background: Spasticity is a common pathological manifestation seen in children with Cerebral palsy. Ankle impairments are closely associated with functional limitations in children with cerebral palsy (CP). As a pattern of tradition spasticity is conservatively managed by application of manual stretching to elongate the tight musculoskeletal structures. But studies suggest that due to stretching there is activation of excitatory impulses which in turn may increase the tone of muscles. So this study is done to establish the efficacy of myofascial release technique in comparison to passive stretching.
Objective: To determine whether Myofascial release technique effective in the treatment of spasticity in children with cerebral palsy in comparison to passive stretching.
Methods: Data of 94 children’s with Cerebral palsy (Boys- 61, Girls-33) with mean age 7 years were included in the study. The subjects were divided into Control and Interventional group. Control group received Passive stretching technique while Interventional group received Myofascial release techniqueat a rate of 6 days per week for 12 weeks consecutively. The outcome was measured using GMFM score, MAS score and GONIOMETRY.
Results: The data was analysed using SPSS 15.0 version. ANOVA test was performed and found significant differences between treatment by Myofascial release techniqueand Passive stretching technique with p value <.001. Cochran Mantel Haenszel tests when stratified by the methods in the present study found significant association indicating the likelihood of Passive stretching technique being superior to Myofascial release technique ( Chi sq-9.55,df=1,p = 0.002).
Conclusion: Both the techniques i.e., Passive stretching technique as well as Myofascial release technique were found to be having significant effects. While on the basis of outcomes of GMFM grade, MAS grade and ROM (Dorsiflexion), Passive stretching was found to be more effective then Myofascial release.
Keywords: Cerebral palsy, Myofascial release, Passive stretching.
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