The forgotten sixth sense in cerebral palsy: do we have enough evidence for proprioceptive treatment?

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the proprioception treatment approaches as well as to investigate the effect of these approaches in individuals with Cerebral Palsy.

Materials and methods: A systematic review was performed using American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine Methodology. PubMed, PEDro, ScienceDirect, The Cochrane Library, Scopus and Web of Science database were searched. All the articles included were evaluated based on their level of evidence and conduct.

Results: Five articles met the inclusion criteria, children and adults with Cerebral Palsy. The effectiveness of different approaches has been examined in all studies and some studies showed effectiveness of treatment on proprioception or on motor performance. However, there was no superiority in between treatment approaches.

Conclusions: The reasons that limits the studies analyzed in this review were small sample sizes and insufficient heterogeneity of groups included. Because of the significance of proprioception on movement and motor performance, it should be included in the evaluation and treatment programs of individuals with Cerebral Palsy.

Implications for rehabilitation

• It has been found that the various treatment methods applied appear to have a positive effect on proprioception with children and adults Cerebral Palsy.

• No treatment appears to be superior to the others.

• Treatment was found to be better as Gross Motor Function Classification System level severity decreased in adults with Cerebral Palsy.

• Treatments used in children with Cerebral Palsy were shown to have effects especially on gait parameters associated with proprioception improvement.

Keywords:

• Cerebral Palsy
• kinesthesis
• movement
• proprioception
• treatment

Acknowledgements

This study was produced from a PhD course titled “REH 742–Developmental Treatment Approaches in Children” at the Faculty of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Hacettepe University. The authors have stated that they had no interests that might be perceived as posing a conflict or bias.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.