Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Growth and Development Disorders in Pediatrics

Background: Hippotherapy has been shown to produce beneficial effects by improving motor functions, such as sitting, walking, running, jumping, coordination, as well as improvement of balance and muscle strength in children with cerebral palsy. Purpose: The aim of the current review was to evaluate the quality of researches on the effect of hippotherapy on gait in children with cerebral palsy. Design: Systematic review of randomized and non- randomized controlled trials.Materials and Methods :Three electronic databases using pre-defined terms were searched by two independent reviewers. All study designs except case reports were in cludedonly seven studies involving 145 participants met the inclusion criteria.Results: Although the current level of evidence is weak, our synthesis found that children with cerebral palsy in cluded in the studies showed improvement on the outcomes of gross motor function, pelvic and hip kinematics of gait, balance, energy expenditure, self-perception profile, hip adductors (tone and asymmetry).Significant improvement was also detected in either all or some of the spatio-temporal parameters of gait due to the application of hippotherapy. Two of seven included studies showed no statistically significant improvement was also detected in spatio-temporal parameters of gaitafter the application of hippotherapy

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