Abstract
Study design: Assessment of spasticity before and after hippotherapy treatment.
Objective: To evaluate the short-term effect of hippotherapy on spasticity of spinal cord injured patients (SCIs).
Setting: Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil.
Methods: 32 patients with spinal cord injury with various degrees of spasticity had repeated sessions (mean 11) of Hippotherapy-K®. Spasticity of the lower extremities was scored according to the Ashworth Scale.
Results: In primary rehabilitation patients Ashworth values after hippotherapy were significantly lower than before (Wilcoxon's signed-rank test: P<0.001). Highest improvements were observed in SCIs with very high spasticity. No significant difference between short-term effect in paraplegic and short-term effect in tetraplegic subjects was found.
Conclusions: Hippotherapy significantly reduces spasticity of lower extremities in SCIs.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all the subjects who participated in the study and we gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation.
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Lechner, H., Feldhaus, S., Gudmundsen, L. et al. The short-term effect of hippotherapy on spasticity in patients with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 41, 502–505 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3101492
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