Galileo Research Facts No. 13: Can intense Galileo Therapy improve the walking distance in CP patients?

One of the best-known centers world-wide which uses Galileo Therapy very effectively to help children especially with Cerebal Plasy (CP) is Uni-Fit Reha and its project “Back on your feet” at the University of Cologne. The group of Prof. Schoenau is one of the leading groups worldwide using Galileo Therapy in children with neuro-muscular diseases. But also, in other countries there are many centers using Galileo Therapy. One of them is the group of Prof. Munns of the University of Sydney, Australia. In this case they cooperated with the group of Hoffman in Auckland, New Zeeland and showed interesting results in older CP patients.

Usually, it is quite difficult to show increases in muscle function in this patient group. Munns however could show that intense Galileo Therapy at 20Hz over 20 weeks can result in significant improvements in gait distance especially in patients with low motor function (Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) Level III) by 35% in average. Also, muscle muss and bone mass could be improved.

The study shows what Galileo Therapy can achieve in a comparably short amount of time. Especially this improvement in muscle mass and muscle power (in addition to classic therapy approaches also an intense training component similar to those of athletes) is one of the reasons why Galileo Therapy can make classic therapy concepts even more effective.

This study is in line with other studies using Galileo Therapy in CP patients and showing significant positive effects in reduction of spasticity (#GRFS166, #GRFS74, #GRFS64), muscle activation & muscle function (#GRFS165, #GRFS72, #GRFS56, #GRFS30), Motorik (#GRFS130), gate quality & walking distance (#GRFS171, #GRFS163, #GRFS51) and last but not least bone mass (#GRFS72).

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