This study was to determine the effects of neutral pelvic training on pelvic alignment, muscle activity, balance, and gait in chronic stroke patients. The subjects were randomly assigned 15 patients in the study group and 15 patients in the control gr...
This study was to determine the effects of neutral pelvic training on pelvic alignment, muscle activity, balance, and gait in chronic stroke patients. The subjects were randomly assigned 15 patients in the study group and 15 patients in the control group to 30 stroke patients. study group performed neutral pelvic training, and control group underwent Conventional physical therapy. Interventions were performed in 30-minute sessions, 5 times per week, over a period of 8 weeks. Pelvic alignment, foot pressure, limits of stability during standing position, lower extremity muscle activity, ground reaction force during gait initiation, and gait speed were measured to determine the intervention effects. The study results were described as follows.
1. Patients in study group demonstrated a decrease in coronal pelvic tilt alignment(p<.01), whereas control group patients demonstrated an increase in coronal pelvic tilt(p>.05). significant differences in the amount of pre-post changes were observed between the groups(p<.01).
2. The analysis of muscle activity during gait initiation in study group revealed increases in gluteus medius and tibialis anterior, and a decrease in gastrocnemius for the paralyzed leg(p<.05). The total amount of change in tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius differed between the two groups(p<.05).
3. In both groups, there was no significant difference in the order of muscle activity between the pre-intervention at the initiation of gait(p>.05), and in the study group after the intervention, muscle activation time was faster in the gluteus medius and tibialis anterior than the gastrocnemius(p<.05). In the control group after the intervention, muscle activation time was faster in the quadriceps femoris, gluteus medius than the tibialis anterior, showing statistically significant differences(p<.05).
4. The foot pressure assessment showed increase on the pralyzed leg in both study group and control group(p<.05), with no significant difference in foot pressure between the two groups(p>.05), The limits of stability assessment showed increases in center of pressure displacement in both study group and control group(p<.01), with no differences observed between the two groups(p>.05).
5. The study group gait characteristics analysis performed during gait initiation revealed an increase in vertical ground reaction force after the intervention(p<.01), and a difference in the total amount of change was also observed between the two groups(p<.05). The study group displayed improved gait speed(p<.05), and we also detected a differences observed between the two groups(p<.05).
The present study demonstrated that study group showed recovery of symmetrical pelvic alignment and changes in muscle activity and exhibited stability in center of pressure displacement during the gait initiation phase and increased gait speed.
Therefore, based on the study group results observed in this study, we suggest that neutral pelvic training has a positive effect on pelvic
alignment, and recovery of postural stability required for gait in patients with hemiplegic strokes.