O Efeito da equoterapia no desempenho funcional em criança com paralisia cerebral: Estudo de caso

Abstract

Introduction: Cerebral Palsy (PC) is characterized by a non-progressive brain injury causing several neuromuscular changes, among them muscle tone, posture and function. In times, Equoterapia appears as an alternative for the physiotherapeutic treatment using horses as a kinesiotherapeutic resource in order to work the individual functionality. This case study involves a 12-year-old child with a diagnosis of PC presenting hypotonic characteristics. Objective: To evaluate the functional performance of a child with cerebral palsy before and after intervention of the therapy. Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) and its functional performance were evaluated using the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). This evaluation was performed before and after each session of equine therapy in the eight sessions in eight consecutive weeks. Results: The dimension E was the only one that presented, based on the t-test, a level of significance lower than 5% between the different sample means between the pre-intervention and post-intervention variables with (p-value = 0.031275). Conclusion: The results showed that the equertherapy treatment can potentiate the functional performance of children with Cerebral Palsy with hypotonic characteristics, making possible their evolution, especially in walking, running and jumping functions.

Keywords: Equine therapy; Functionality; Cerebral Palsy.