The Effect of Massage and Cryotherapy Programs on Spasticity and Range of Motion of Upper Limb in Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy

The purpose of this research was the effect of massage and cryotherapy programs on spasticity and range of motion of upper limb in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Itis a clinical research that used by semi-experimental method. 15 Spastic CP children were selected as in access subjects and divided in three groups. The massage and cryotheraphy are trained to subjects in 8 weeks (three sessions in each week). Control group continued the same program of rehabilitation and occupational therapy that usually did before the staring research. Differences within groups were tested via dependent t-test and between-groups differences by ANOVA; additionally we use Tukey test if there was significant differences between groups. Intra-group results showed improvement in muscles spasticity and upper extremity joint's range of motion (ROM) in both groups (p<0.05), while between group results didn’t show any significant difference in post test's parameters compared to control group except improvement in elbow ROM of cryotherapy group and wrist ROM of massage group. It seems adding each of massage program and cryotherapy to physiotherapy and occupational therapy program improve ROM in upper extremity of spastic children with 7-12 year but do not improve spasticity in this people.