To Study the Effects of Mcimt Versus Cimt for Young Children with Spastic Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy- a Comparitive Study

Background & purpose: Cerebral palsy is the diagnostic term used to describe a group of motor syndromes resulting from disorders of early brain development. The collaborative perinatal project, in which approximately 45000 children where regularly monitored from pregnancy to the age of 7 years, found the most children with CP had been born at term with uncomplicated labors and deliveries.

Objective: The objective of the study is to find out whether restraining of the uninvolved limb and use of hand techniques will help to overcome hand function and improve functional activity in spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

Methodology: Subjects were assigned in two groups A and B (15 patients in each group by randomized sampling) both are experimental group. Group A is treated with CIMT , with restrain of un-involved arm for 90 % of awaking hours per day and the involved arm is given group programs including hand exercise , passive stretching , shaping and repetitive task practice for 6 hours per day . Group B is treated with MCIMT , with restrain of un-involved arm for 1 hour per day and the involved arm is given group programs and playing activities for 1 hour per day . Each subject is assessed according to assessment scale. Thirty subjects with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy of age group between 3-5 years are taken .Duration of the study is 3 months and data collection is done at day zero and at the end of 12 wks.

Study design: Experimental design

Outcome measure: 1. Motor Activity Log Scale,2. Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test (QUEST ) 7

Results: Data for 30 patients were included in the data analysis. Between group analysis shows significance ( P<0.01) improvement in group A in both the group .Where as group B was ( P<0.00) less significantly improved in both the group. Hence alternate hypothesis is accepted at p = 0.00 and the null hypothesis is rejected.

Conclusion: Data collected through the study showed more improvement in the hand function and functional activities in patients with hemiplegic cerebral palsy in the group A. Thus, it can be concluded that CIMT are more beneficial in improving hand function for young children with spastic hemiplegic cp. This is one reason in all the literature which emphasizes the importance of above CIMT over MCIMT.