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. 2024 Jul 10;10(14):e34318.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34318. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.

The pilot study of the effect of six-week robot-assisted ankle training on mobility and strength of lower extremity and life habits for children with cerebral palsy

Madawi Alotaibi  1 , Brent L Arnold  2 , Niki Munk  2 , Tracy Dierks  2 , Peter Altenburger  2 , Samiah Alqabbani  1 , Afrah Almuwais  1
Affiliations

The pilot study of the effect of six-week robot-assisted ankle training on mobility and strength of lower extremity and life habits for children with cerebral palsy

Madawi Alotaibi et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Background: Children with cerebral palsy often have weak ankle muscles and reduced ankle dorsiflexion, which leads to activity limitations and eventually affects quality of life. Robotic ankle training was recently developed to facilitates muscle function through a high repetition of exercises. This study investigated the effect of six-week ankle training using the Anklebot device to improve lower limb structural and functional impairments and the resulting impact on quality of life.

Methods: Five children with spastic cerebral palsy aged between 4 and 11 years participated in six weeks of bilateral ankle assistive training using the Anklebot device. All lower limb muscle strength was measured with a hand-held dynameter, and range of motion was measured with a goniometer, at four different time points. Muscle architecture was assessed using a portable diagnostic ultrasound device, and quality of life was assessed using the Life Habits for Children scale, at two points in time only.

Results: Muscle strength and range of motion for all lower limb joints demonstrated significant improvement on both sides after training. The ankle muscle architecture showed non-significant improvement, while an overall significant improvement in the total score of the Life Habits for Children scale was detected after training.

Conclusion: Robot-assisted task-specific ankle training provides promising effects by allowing the required repetition to improve structural and functional muscle and joint impairments, which has a positive influence on the children's quality of life. However, due to a limited sample size, these results should be considered as preliminary; further study is needed.

Keywords: Ankle training; Cerebral palsy; Quality of life; Range of motion; Robot-assisted therapy; Strength.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study design flow diagram.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The anklebot intervention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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