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Article Dans Une Revue Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Année : 2017

Mechanical horse, a new rehabilitation method for brain-damaged patients: Focus on postural coordination. A preliminary study

Résumé

Objective The mechanical horse (a.k.a. simulated hippotherapy) was created in the 1990s. Early works investigating the use of mechanical horses in rehabilitation have shown a similar effect on posture compared to real hippotherapy. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of a new rehabilitation protocol on the postural coordination of patients with brain-damaged. The first results of an ongoing study are presented below. Material/patients and methods Two brain-damaged patients (P1, P2) were recruited for a rehabilitation protocol of 24 sessions of practice with a mechanical horse (one single axis and oscillation frequencies from 12.1 osc.min−1 or 20% of maximal speed to 150 osc.min−1 or 100%). Patients performed different balance exercises and trunk mobilizations on a mechanical horse in movement. During the first and last sessions (i.e., pre- and post-tests), reflective markers were positioned on the patients and continuously tracked (head, C2, C7, S1, horse) for a range of different oscillation frequencies (adapted to abilities of each patient). Through point coordinates of those five reflective markers, three angles between specific limb and the vertical axis were computed (head vs. vertical, trunk vs. vertical, horse vs. vertical). Discrete relative phase (φ) between patient oscillations and horse oscillations was then computed, characterizing the φHead-Horse and φTrunk-Horse coordinations (in-phase = 0° ± 20°, antiphase = 180° ± 20° or out-of-phase). Results P1 and P2 showed a head-horse coordination in out-of-phase for every oscillation frequencies (e.g., at 40% oscillations frequency, P2: φHead-Horse = 118.9° ± 17°); identically to the trunk-horse coordination of P1 (e.g., at 40% oscillations frequency: φTrunk-Horse = 90° ± 19°). However, the trunk-horse coordination of P2 was in antiphase (e.g., at 40% oscillations frequency, P2: φTrunk-Horse = 166° ± 4°). Finally, a significant reduction of the variability of those coordinations was observed in post-test. Discussion – conclusion Preliminary results suggest that the use of a mechanical horse allows positive effects on the posture in brain-damaged patients. Indeed after 24 sessions, an increase in patients’ ability to control their activity during higher frequencies was observed (e.g., P2 was unable to oscillate faster than 50% frequency in pre-test when he reached 80% of maximal frequency in post-test). Moreover, the postural stability of patients was improved through the practice of balance and trunk mobilization on the mechanical horse.

Domaines

Psychologie
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Dates et versions

hal-01982195 , version 1 (15-01-2019)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-01982195 , version 1

Citer

Héloïse Baillet, Régis Thouvarecq, Eric Verin, Claire Delpouve, Nicolas Benguigui, et al.. Mechanical horse, a new rehabilitation method for brain-damaged patients: Focus on postural coordination. A preliminary study. Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 2017, 60, pp.e82. ⟨hal-01982195⟩
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