Effects of 4 weeks of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization training on balance and gait performance in an adolescent with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy.
Do-Hyun Kim, Duk-Hyun An, Won-Gyu Yoo
PMID 29184312WHAT IT FOUND
In one 13-year-old with spastic hemiparetic cerebral palsy, four weeks of dynamic neuromuscular stabilization training coincided with better balance test scores and faster walking.
This single case shows what happened, not that the training caused improvement.
Key findings
01After 4 weeks of DNS training, the adolescent's BOT-2 balance subtest score improved from 30 to 34 points.
02On the BOT-2 balance items, item 5 improved from 2 to 4, item 7 from 2 to 3, and item 9 from 3 to 4.
03The 10MWT time was reduced from 8.54 s to 6.67 s, and the 6MWT distance was increased from 478.6 m to 544.1 m.
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What it does not show
Only one adolescent was studied, so the observed changes cannot be separated from natural variation, practice effects, or other unreported factors. There was no control group, randomisation, or blinding, so the study cannot show that DNS training caused the improvements. The participant had hemiparetic cerebral palsy and was 13 years old, so the results may not apply to other ages or types of cerebral palsy.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that DNS training improves balance or gait in cerebral palsy. It is a single case report, and the changes after 4 weeks were not compared with a control group, so they cannot establish a treatment effect.