The Effects of Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill Training on Dynamic Balance of Children with Cerebral Palsy

We aimed to characterize the therapeutic effects of Anti-gravity (AlterG) body weight supported treadmill training on the impaired balance of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Four spastic CP children participated; two received AlterG training 3 times a week for 8 weeks and the other two received typical occupational therapy accordingly. Their dynamic balance was evaluated before the start of the treatment and 2 months after it. Features related to the center of pressure (COP) and the center of mass (COM) were considered as dynamic balance parameters. Our results showed that the maximum velocity and acceleration of the COP and COM, the average variability (RMS) and peak to peak of the COM-COP separation, and RMS of velocity and acceleration of the COM and COP were all improved for both AlterG training patients (15–90%), though there was a limited improvement of 0.2–24% in some features of the control patients. Our results demonstrate that intensive sessions of the AlterG training program could have the potential to be used as a therapeutic tool that can produce dynamic balance improvements in CP children compared to that of typical occupational therapy.