The Role of Acupuncture in Treatment of Cerebral Palsy: A systematic review

Cerebral palsy (CP) has been defined as a disorder affecting body movement, motor skills and postural control. Itis caused by damage to the developing fetal or infant brain during pregnancy or at birth. Acupuncture has beenused to treat a variety of childhood problems; however, its role in CP remains unclear. The objective of this studywas to systematically evaluate the role of acupuncture in treatment of CP.The databases of PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, SID and Magiran were searched with keywords of cerebralpalsy , spastic palsy, hypotonic palsy , acupuncture , children to identify relevant articles. Included were allPersian and English trials, published between 2000 and December 2017.Ultimately eight trials were included in this study. One study reported more restful sleep, improvement in moodand bowel function. improvement in muscle tone revealed in two studies and also two studies reported improvedmovement functions. one research showed acupuncture s beneficial effect on reducing spasticity in spasticcerebral palsy and another mention to improvement in the functional skills, self-care and mobility domain. Motorfunctions improvement described in three studies (P<0.05). One study reported improvement in quality of lifeand the other showed enhancement in the comprehensive ability of CP children.Acupuncture has beneficial effects on reducing spasticity, improving motor functions, muscle tone and quality oflife in CP children. So acupuncture plays an active role in rehabilitative care and provided new ideas for treatingthe disease by Complementary/alternative therapies.

Keywords:

Acupuncture , Cerebral palsy , Spastic palsy , Hypotonic cerebral palsy , Children