Does osteopathic treatment affect proprioception in a child with mild diplegia (cerebral palsy)? A single case study.
Item
- Title
- Does osteopathic treatment affect proprioception in a child with mild diplegia (cerebral palsy)? A single case study.
- Author(s)
- Wackett, H
- Abstract
- Background Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a non-progressive abnormality of the immature brain that results in the permanent disorder of movement and coordination. Maintaining balance is a complex task that involves the integration of the somatosensory system and the central nervous system (CNS), which is found to be of deficit in CP. There seems to be a paucity of literature regarding osteopathy (as a manual therapy) and its effect on proprioception within the realms of balance abilities of a child with CP. Objective To investigate the potential role osteopathic treatment has on the proprioception outcome measures of a child with cerebral palsy. Design This study is a single subject design using an ABAB structure. Methods The Wii Balance Board (WBB) combined with Pondera 2 ® software was used to collect proprioceptive outcome measures (OM) of a 10-year-old child with mild diplegic CP during a 12-week study consisting of eight 30-minute sessions of osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) with a 2-week withdrawal phase after 4 treatment sessions. The proprioceptive OM were: Mean distance anterior-posterior(AP) and medial-lateral(ML), root mean squared (RMS) distance AP and ML, range distance AP and ML, and sway area. Statistical process control was completed for the quantitative data. ResultsThe individualised reports showed a positive shift of measures from the first to the last report. No significant change was found in the proprioception OM. The difference between first and last measures were: Mean distance AP=0.75mm, Mean distance ML=1.2mm, RMS AP=1.8mm, RMS ML=1.35mm, Range AP=9.05mm, Range ML=2.35mm, Sway area=1.65mm². Three themes were seen in the thematic descriptive analysis: i) Scope of expression, ii) Treatment response, iii) Validation. Discussion In the present study, no statistically significant improvement in proprioceptive measures were found following the OMT. Although, there is a trend of minimal improvement of qualitative and quantitative data in the present study. Nonetheless it is difficult to determine the causal factor of the trend due to study limitations. Conclusion The results of the present study are inconclusive, but would support further research in this area of treatment regarding CP, if the methodological limitations of the present study were taken into consideration.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2018
- Date Submitted
- 25.1.2019 17:18:25
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 16412
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT)
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Wackett, H, “Does osteopathic treatment affect proprioception in a child with mild diplegia (cerebral palsy)? A single case study.”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed April 23, 2025, https://library.wso.at/s/orw/item/352