A Comparative Study to Identify the Effects of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation Combined with Sensorimotor Task Oriented Training to Improve the Hand Function in Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy Children
YC17-YC21
Correspondence
Dr. Durairaj Satheeskumar,
26/2, Mariamman Kovil Street, Trichengode, Namakkal-637211, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-mail: satheesdj@gmail.com
Introduction: Impaired hand function is one of the major growing concerns for hemiplegic cerebral palsy children. Poor hand function is more often due to either individual or combination of the motor and sensory deficit.
Aim: To find the effectiveness of Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) combination with sensorimotor task-oriented training to improve hand function in spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy children.
Materials and Methods: This single-blind, randomised, multi-center study was conducted in Mangalore and Coimbatore from March 2014 to November 2016. This study included 60 hemiplegic cerebral palsy children aged from four to 12 years who were randomly assigned into two groups: Group-A received high frequency TENS combination with sensorimotor task-oriented training and Group-B received only placebo TENS combination with sensorimotor task-oriented training for three sessions per week for eight weeks. Tactile registration, tactile localisation, two point discrimination, stereognosis, nine-hole peg test, grasp domains of quality of upper extremity skill test and ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire were measured at before and after the interventions.
Results: The Group-A showed significant improvement in tactile registration, tactile localisation, nine-hole peg test and quality of upper extremity skill test score than Group-B at p <0.001 level. There was no significance difference in two point discrimination, stereognosis and ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire score.
Conclusion: Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation with sensorimotor task-oriented training can improve hand function of hemiplegic cerebral palsy children but further studies are required to analyse the contribution of TENS as a sensory intervention.