NCT05711238

Robotic Hand Therapy for Children With Cerebral Palsy

Completed NA Last updated 15 August 2023

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Robotic rehabilitation in Cerebral Palsy in 20 participants. Completed in 15 July 2023.

Timeline

15 November 2021

Primary endpoint
15 July 2023

15 July 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	double
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	20
Start date	15 November 2021
Primary completion	15 July 2023
Estimated completion	15 July 2023
Sites	1 location across Turkey (Türkiye)

Drugs / interventions tested

• Robotic rehabilitation
• Conventional rehabilitation

Conditions studied

• Cerebral Palsy — all drugs for Cerebral Palsy →
• Hand Functions — all drugs for Hand Functions →
• Rehabilitation — all drugs for Rehabilitation →
• Robotic Rehabilitation — all drugs for Robotic Rehabilitation →

Sponsor

Afyonkarahisar Health Sciences University

Who can join

Adults 7 to 18, any sex, with Cerebral Palsy or Hand Functions. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common physical disability in childhood. The term CP is defined as a group of persistent but non-progressive movement and posture disorders resulting from a defect or lesion of the immature brain. The overall prevalence of CP worldwide is 2.11 per 1000 live births.

There is evidence that 80% of children with CP have upper extremity involvement. In general, the acquisition of effective arm and hand skills for use in daily life is a complex process that not only requires neuromusculoskeletal integrity, but also includes various aspects of the child's abilities. Thus, in addition to the positive symptoms that typically present patterns of spasticity, children and adolescents with CP often have a poor ability to reach, grasp, release, and manipulate objects. They also have difficulty using their upper extremities to perform self-care and other activities.

Robot-assisted and computer-assisted methods may be valuable new strategies for improving the sensory-motor learning process in children with central motor impairment. These new technologies represent an attractive complement to existing physiotherapeutic and occupational therapy concepts.

In patients with difficulty in individual finger and hand movements, the AMADEO device (Tyromotion, Austria) can be used for unilateral distal training of the upper extremity. With this device, patients with little or no voluntary control of the hand and fingers can receive more or less passive training, while those with better distal function of the upper extremity can strength train by following the device or even against the device to a certain extent.

Implementation of robot-assisted therapy provides intense repetitive training, sensorimotor integration and cognitive engagement through targeted tasks; focuses primarily on functional motor performance. From previous studies, the use of robotic devices has been found to improve the kinematics, range of motion, muscle tone, postural control, and functionality of the upper and lower extremities in individuals with CP. Robotic hand therapy has started to take place in routine rehabilitation protocols today. Considering the scarcity of studies on robotic hand therapy in the pediatric group, larger-scale studies are needed. In this study, our aim is to investigate the effect of robotic hand therapy on hand functions and quality of life in children with CP.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.