Functional electrical stimulation for walking in adults with cerebral palsy: a service evaluation.
Rebecca Walters, Coralie Seary, Ben Beare and 1 others
PMID 40022119WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with cerebral palsy using functional electrical stimulation for foot drop walked slightly faster and reported much higher satisfaction with their walking after three months.
Most continued using the device for years, though the small number of participants and lack of a control group limit confidence in these results.
Key findings
01Walking speed increased significantly with FES compared to without FES at three months.
02Patient-reported satisfaction with walking improved significantly from baseline to three months.
03A majority of patients continued to use the device regularly over the study period.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
This was a retrospective service evaluation without a control group or randomization. There was significant missing data, with only 26 of 60 patients having complete three-month outcomes. The study took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced dropout rates and service access. The long-term analysis included only 11 patients, and satisfaction data for this group was based on just 4 paired comparisons. Participants were from a specialist neurological hospital, so results may not generalize to adults with cerebral palsy managed in primary care.
Declared interests
No specific funding source or conflict of interest declaration is provided in the text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume FES is a superior or standard treatment for all adults with cerebral palsy. This was a small, uncontrolled service evaluation with high dropout rates and missing data, so the observed improvements cannot be definitively attributed to the device alone without comparison to other interventions like orthoses.