How children with cerebral palsy adapt their walking with feedback and training

AI summary

From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.

The trial is looking for children and teenagers with cerebral palsy that affects both legs. It studies how they adapt their walking on a treadmill, with feedback training or after orthopedic surgery.

Age

7 Years to 18 Years

Sex

All sexes can join.

Disease stage

Bilateral cerebral palsy that affects both legs. Gross Motor Functional Classification System Level II.

Earlier treatment

No surgery or leg injuries in the 12 months before joining. No botulinum toxin injections in the prior 3 months. No prior selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery.

Main reasons for not taking part

• Surgery or lower-leg injury in the past 12 months
• Botulinum toxin injections in the past 3 months
• Prior selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery
• Seizures or heart conditions that would prevent walking on a treadmill for 20 minutes
• Current pain that makes walking hard

The registry criteria, word for word

Check if you might fit

Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.

• Are you between 7 and 18 years old?YesNo

What the trial wants to find out

This research aims to evaluate walking function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The researchers want to understand how children with CP adapt and learn new ways of moving. They have previously found that measuring how a person controls their muscles is important for assessing walking ability and response to interventions. In these studies, they will adjust the treadmill belt speeds and/or provide real-time feedback to evaluate how a child can alter their movement. The feedback will include a wearable exoskeleton that provides resistance to the ankle and audio and visual cues based on sensors that record muscle activity. This research will investigate three goals: first, to measure how children with CP adapt their walking; second, to see if either repeated training or orthopedic surgery can improve adaptation rates; and third, to determine if individual differences in adaptation relate to improvements in walking function after treatment. This research will help develop better treatments to enhance walking capacity and performance for children with CP.

The 2 groups in the trial

• Orthopedic SurgeryTreatment being tested

  Participants who have been scheduled for lower-extremity, multilevel orthopedic surgery will be assessed before and 9-18 months after surgery to evaluate changes in gait and adaptation rates.

  Treatment: Multilevel Orthopedic Surgery

• Audiovisual + Sensorimotor BiofeedbackTreatment being tested

  Participants will complete 12 sessions (20 minutes of walking on a treadmill) over a 6-8 week period while receiving both audiovisual and sensorimotor biofeedback. Sensorimotor biofeedback will be provided with an ankle exoskeleton that provides resistance to ankle plantarflexion during the stance phase of gait. The visual feedback will be provided on a screen with a bar showing real-time muscle activity and the audio feedback will be a sound played when they reach the target level of muscle activity from the plantarflexors.

  Treatment: Biomotum Spark: Robotic ankle resistance and Audiovisual Biofeedback