Gait in adolescent cerebral palsy: The effect of partial unweighting

Objective: To determine the efficacy of partial unweighting in improving gait in a patient with cerebral palsy. Patient: One medically stable 17-year-old female, classified as having spasticity. Methods and Materials: Heart rate, blood pressure, and perceived exertion were recorded across increments in treadmill gait speed as a function of nonsupported and partial unweighting conditions (30% of body mass supported). Nonsupported and partial unweighting conditions were administered 1 week apart. Results: The partial unweighting condition resulted in significantly lower physiologic (heart rate and blood pressure) indices and perceived exertion across all increments in gait speed. Additionally, the subject was able to ambulate at a faster rate of speed under the partial unweighting relative to nonsupported conditions. Conclusions: These results suggest partial unweighting improves gait efficiency across increments in gait speed, but only to a certain point. For the subject in this report, gait efficiency declined as speed increased beyond some critical threshold (about 2.72km/h), suggesting a limit to partial unweighting during gait training as a function of endurance and training.