Introduction: Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive, yet changing movement and posture
disorder. Movement disorders may manifest in spasticity, dyskinesia, dystonia, ataxia or
their mixed forms. The most common form is spasticity, manifested in increased muscular
tone, increased defiance of reflexes, tremor and scissor gait. Children with cerebral palsy
experience impaired perception and muscle weakness, makes it difficult to perform daily
life activities and affects their balance. Hippotherapy is used in patients with neurological
disorders, with the intention to improve their neurological functions and sensory processes.
With its three-dimensional movements, a horse can transfer onto the rider from 90 to 110
three-dimensional movement impulses in one minute. It has beneficial effects on posture
control, balance, coordination, gross motor function and functional capability.
Hippotherapy is performed by a physiotherapist with special qualifications. Purpose: The
purpose of this paper is to determine, based on a recent literature overview, short-term
effects of hippotherapy on balance in children with cerebral palsy. Methods: Literature
was found in PubMed, Pedro, Science Direct and Google Scholar databases. The following
English words and their combinations were used as search criteria: hippotherapy, cerebral
palsy and balance. Results: Based on inclusion and exclusion factors, our literature
overview included six studies published between 2012 and 2020. The studies comprised in
total 302 subjects. The duration of hippotherapy programmes varied, i.e. from at least eight
weeks to at most 12 weeks, once or twice a week, and lasted from 15 to 45 minutes. Four
studies determined beneficial effects of hippotherapy on balance in children with cerebral
palsy when seated. In addition, two studies determined beneficial effects on gross motor
function in children with cerebral palsy. Discussion and conclusion: We were able to
determine that most studies reported statistically significant effects of hippotherapy on
balance, posture and/or the gross motor function. Nonetheless, it would be reasonable to
combine hippotherapy with other therapy methods. Additional research would be required,
involving greater subject samples, uniform inclusion and exclusion factors, a more uniform
intervention programme and an evaluation method.
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