Is Hyppotherapy Beneficial for Rehabilitation of Children with Cerebral Palsy?

Objective: The aim of this randomized controlled study was to investigate the effects of hyppotherapy on gross motor functions, balance, coordination and walking in children with cerebral palsy. Material and Methods: A total of 23 children with cerebral palsy were included in the study. Participants were randomly divided into two groups as hyppotherapy and control groups. All children in both groups received 2 weeks of conventional physiotherapy with one-hour sessions every day. Hyppotherapy group also received hyppotherapy education for 30-45 min once a day for 10 weeks. All children in both groups were evaluated using the Gross Motor Function Measure-88 (GMFM-88) in terms of gross motor functions, the Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) in terms of balance-coordination and computed walking analysis in terms of walking functions. Results: Ten patients from each group completed the study. Post-treatment evaluation of both groups revealed statistically significant improvements in weltering, sitting, crawling, standing and walking-running-jumping sub-parameters and total scores of GMFM-88 (p<0.05 for all parameters). The improvement in weltering, crawling, standing and total GMFM-88 scores was significantly higher in the hyppotherapy group compared to the control group (p<0.05 for all parameters). PBS significantly increased in both groups (p<0.05 for all parameters) and the difference between the improvement rates of two groups was not significant (p>0.05). While walking speed (right p=0.043, left p=0.026) and cadance (p=0.028) significantly improved, a significant improvement was not detected in the walking parameters of the control group. Conclusion: Hyppotherapy may be considered a beneficial method that may provide additional motor gains in rehabilitation and treatment of children with cerebral palsy.