Gait Training With Visual Feedback and Proprioceptive Input to Reduce Gait Asymmetry in Adults With Cerebral Palsy: A Case Series
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Published on: January 15, 2016
Ilana Levin1, Michael D Lewek, Jeff Feasel
1Department of Allied Health Sciences, Division of Physical Therapy, Program in Human Movement Science (Drs Levin, Thorpe, and Lewek), and Department of Computer Science (Mr Feasel), University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill.
Purpose:
The purpose of this case series was to investigate the feasibility of using visual feedback on gait asymmetry during gait retraining and whether this leads to reduced asymmetry, improvement in gait speed, cost of walking, and dynamic balance in ambulant adults with cerebral palsy (CP).
Methods:
Five adults with CP, who were ambulatory and had step length or stance time asymmetry, trained for 18 sessions on a split-belt treadmill with concurrent visual feedback from a virtual environment. Training also included overground gait training to encourage transfer of learning.
Results:
All participants reduced gait asymmetry and improved on outcomes at posttest and follow-up.
Conclusions:
Outcome measures and training protocols were feasible in this sample of convenience of adults with CP who were ambulatory and who did not have visual impairment. The adults with CP in this study demonstrated individual improvements in gait and balance following training.
