Gait improvement in patients with cerebral palsy by visual and auditory feedback

To study the effects of gait training with visual and auditory feedback cues on the walking abilities of patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy.

Visual and auditory feedback cues were generated by a wearable device, driven by inertial sensors. Ten randomly selected patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy and seven age-matched healthy individuals trained with visual feedback cues, while ten patients and eight age-matched healthy individuals trained with auditory feedback cues. Baseline performance (walking speed and stride length along a 10-m straight track) was measured before device use. Following 20-min training with the device and a 20-min break, performance without the device was measured again and compared with the baseline performance.

For the patients who trained with visual feedback, the average improvement was 21.70% ± 36.06% in the walking speed and 8.72% ± 9.47% in the stride length. For the patients who trained with auditory feedback, the average improvement was 25.43% ± 28.65% in the walking speed and 13.58% ± 13.10% in the stride length. For the healthy individuals who trained with visual feedback, the average improvement was -2.41% ± 9.54% in the walking speed and -2.84% ± 10.11% in the stride length. For the healthy individuals who trained with auditory feedback, the average improvement was 0.01% ± 7.73% in the walking speed and -2.03% ± 6.15% in the stride length.

Training with visual and auditory feedback cues can improve gait parameters in patients with gait disorders due to cerebral palsy. This was contrasted by no improvement in age-matched healthy individuals.