Spanish 
Chinese 
Russian 
German 
French 
Japanese 
Portuguese 
Hindi Research Article
Postural Stability after Hippotherapy in an Adolescent with Cerebral Palsy
Monika Zadnikar1* and Darja Rugelj21Centre for Education and Rehabilitation for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs, Kamnik, Slovenia
2University of Ljubljana, Health Faculty of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- *Corresponding Author:
- Monika Zadnikar
Centre for Education and Rehabilitation for Children
and Adolescents with Special Needs (CIRIUS), Kamnik, Slovenia
E-mail: monika.zadnikar@guest.arnes.si
Received date : October 31, 2011; Accepted date : December 22, 2011; Published date : December 23, 2011
Citation: Zadnikar M, Rugelj D (2011) Postural Stability after Hippotherapy in an Adolescent with Cerebral Palsy. J Nov Physiother 1:106. doi: 10.4172/2165-7025.1000106
Copyright: © 2011 Zadnikar M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objectives:To investigate whether hippotherapy has short- and long-term effects on postural control in an adolescent with cerebral palsy (CP).
Design: Pre-and post-treatment follow-up with 5-week intervention. Quantitative stabilometry and a modified sensory organization test were performed to determine the subject’s response after hippotherapy (HT). The total path length and the lengths of the mediolateral and anteroposterior centre of pressure (COP) movements were calculated.
Settings: Measurement system from the Health Faculty research laboratory in centre for HT.
Participant: Adolescent with CP.
Intervention: 5 weeks’ hippotherapy, 3 times per week for 30 minutes.
Measures: Modified sensory organization test, stabilometry and gross motor function measure.
Results: The results of measurement of the short-term effect of HT on the parameters of movement of the COP on a firm surface with eyes open show that the total path length decreased by 20.94%, the path length in the mediolateral direction decreased by 24.30%, and in the anteroposterior direction by 17.91%; the area of the stabilogram decreased by 55.54% and the individual variance index (IVI) decreased by 9.95%. After completion of HT, the total path length decreased by 33.70%, the path length in the mediolateral direction decreased by 30.48%, in the anteroposterial direction by 35.06%; the stabilogram area decreased by 59.82% and IVI decreased by 15.10%.
Conclusion: In our case study the modified sensory organization test on the force plate was sufficiently sensitive to detect fluctuation changes in the COP; therefore it is appropriate for continued use. Similarly, HT was found to have a positive effect on postural control.
