The effectiveness of Baby-CIMT in infants younger than 12 months with clinical signs of unilateral-cerebral palsy; an explorative study with randomized design

Aim: To explore the effectiveness of baby-CIMT (constraint-induced movement therapy) and baby-massage for improving the manual ability of infants younger than 12 months with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: Infants eligible for inclusion were 3-8 months old with asymmetric hand function and at high risk of developing unilateral CP. Thirty-seven infants were assigned randomly to receive baby-CIMT or baby-massage. At one year of age 31 children were diagnosed with unilateral CP, 18 (8 boys, 6.1±1.7months) of these had received baby-CIMT and 13 (8 boys, 5.0±1.6months) baby-massage. There were two 6-week training periods separated by a 6-week pause. The Hand Assessment for Infants (HAI), Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA), the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSCS) and a questionnaire concerning feasibility were applied.

Results: There was improvement in the "Affected hand score" of HAI from median 10 (6;13 IQR) to 13 (7;17 IQR) raw score in the baby-CIMT group and from 5 (4;11 IQR) to 6 (3;12 IQR) for baby-massage with a significant between group difference (p=0.041). At 18-month of age, the median AHA score were 51 (38;72 IQR) after baby-CIMT (n=18) compared to 24 (19;43 IQR) baby-massage (n=9). The PSCS revealed an enhanced sense of competence of being a parent among fathers in the baby-CIMT group compared to fathers in the baby-massage (p=0.002). Parents considered both interventions to be feasible.

Conclusion: Baby-CIMT appears to improve the unimanual ability of young children with unilateral CP more than massage.