This post is to stress the importance of Walking aids and Splints in Cerebral Palsy.
Very often we see children with Cerebral palsy operated upon and then they complain that even after surgery, there is no difference. On further probing they confide that there is no improvement after surgery and continuous physiotherapy. Then it slowly comes to light that due to social stigma and fear of being labelled ‘crippled’ these children / parents tend to avoid brace.
This results in children losing the improvement they would have obtained after surgery and physiotherapy and child loses muscle strength, balancing abilities and retards the improvement of the child. This results in poor self esteem, loss of confidence and the child tends not to walk. The child then enters a vicious cycle.
The video at Paediatric Orthopaedic and Limb Deformity Community at Facebook illustrates the importance of splints and walking aids in child’s gait. The left side video shows the child trying to walk without walker or splint, the center video shows child walking with only the walker and the right extreme shows the child with both splint and walker.
Thanks,
Dr.Easwar T.R
Paediatric Orthopaedic & Spine Surgeon
Coimbatore
Dr. Easwar T.R 