Active clinical trials for "Paralysis"

Changes related to Cerebral Palsy (CP) include differences in muscle architecture and cortical activity. These result in weakness, decreased functional ability and limited participation in physical activity. Strength training programs, particularly those including power training components, show great potential in improving the gross motor function of youth with CP. However, this intervention is not currently offered in the Calgary area. Delivered via an innovative partnership with community stakeholders, this project will investigate the preliminary effectiveness of the program to enable youth with CP to achieve child and family centered goals. It will also investigate the feasibility of offering this type of program via a community-hospital partnership. Research Question & Objectives: Can youth with cerebral palsy achieve their goals and improve their motor function through RIPT (Resistance Intensive Personal Training), a power training program offered jointly by specialized physiotherapists and fitness professionals in community settings? What are the barriers and facilitators to delivery of RIPT in a community setting for youth, caregivers, clinicians, and program staff?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of exoskeleton robot gait training on activities of daily living, gross motor function evaluation, balance and walking ability in adolescents with cerebral palsy.

Muscle weakness is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms following a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Strength training is recommended as an effective means to increase muscular strength and improve function for individuals with long term SCI. In contrast, the strength training guidance for those with a recent (<1 year) SCI is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of a method of upper limb strengthening - Progressive Resistance Training (PRT) and its impact upon muscle strength and function.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether rasagiline is effective in the treatment of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a rapidly progressing disease with a symptomatology similar to Parkinson's Disease. The major aim of this study is the limitation or halting of the process of neurodegeneration and influence postural instability.

SPARCLE 1 and 2 studies followed a cohort of 818 children with cerebral palsy (CP) between 8 and 12 (SPARCLE 1) and 13 and 18 years old (SPARCLE 2) interviewed at home. The prevalence of pain in these populations was respectively 60 and 69% while it is about 35% in typically developed children of the same age. The main location of the pain for 60% of children with CP was the lower limbs, caused by musculoskeletal pain and movement (for those who can) and therapeutic procedures. In SPARCLE 2, 50% of the children complained about pain during physical therapy. If the pain is part of the management of physiotherapy, a recent review showed that for a condition such as chronic back pain, the level of evidence of the effectiveness of physiotherapy techniques in reducing pain is low. The effectiveness of these techniques would include higher efficacy on anxiety than pain itself. Despite significant involvement of physiotherapists in the management of pain, the focus on pain should increase, in particular taking into account the procedural/induced pain (caused by treatment). In addition to drugs, physical methods (analgesic therapy) or psychotherapy are used to reduce the pain of children during medical procedures. For the latter most of them require the presence of two individuals to provide the therapy. This is unsuited for out-patient care provided to the majority of children with CP. Non steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs), are first recommended, alone or in combination with the treatment of several indications in child pain (migraine, postoperative pain, etc.). Ibuprofen is commonly used in children during painful procedures and represented the 4th molecule among prescribed per os analgesic drugs in 2008 in the United States.

After nerve injury and facial palsy, many patients have permanent muscle and sensory dysfunction. Electrical stimulation (ES) of injured nerves may speed up axon growth and improve recovery. This study will assess if ES accelerates motor axon regeneration and improves muscle recovery in patients undergoing two-staged facial reanimation for facial palsy. This study of ES in these patients will investigate: i) nerve regeneration over long distances; ii) direct evidence of changes in nerve regeneration with nerve samples from the second procedure; and iii) changes in functional outcomes in a patient population with much less variability. Our study will provide evidence about the effect of ES in improving outcomes in patients with nerve injuries.

This study will test a drug called MGAWN1 for the treatment of West Nile infections.

Hypothesis: (1) Treating upper limb hypertonia/spasticity with Botox®, in addition to reducing hypertonia/spasticity, will (a) improve global development, (b) improve function (passive & active), (c) reduce carer burden and (d) improve quality of life. (2) Early treatment with Botox® will have a greater impact on the rate of global development when compared to late treatment.

The purpose of this double-blinded, placebo-controlled study is to test if treatment with Botulinum toxin-A is effective in reducing chronic muscle-related pain in adults with spastic cerebral palsy.

Facial palsy can be divided into supranuclear lesion (central facial palsy) and infranuclear lesion such as Bell's Palsy, an idiopathic disease. The peripheral facial paralysis (PFP) is a frequent but little-known pathology (20 / 100 000 inhabitants in France a year). Oro-facial functions and the ability to convey emotional facial information are seriously affected by facial palsy, thereby reducing patient's quality of life. The PFP can have several repercussions on the functional, aesthetic, social, occupational and psychological levels. Evolution and prognosis depend not only on its etiology and gravity, but also on the precocity and the quality of the medical and paramedical care. It is essential to assess functional and psychological issues before beginning an adapted global therapeutic care. If these depressive symptoms can be explained by multiple factors, the inability to smile would be one of the triggering factors of depression. The facial feedback hypothesis could be one of many explications because smiling induces a positive emotional state and a feeling of well-being. In PFP, patients must cope with their difficulties to smile. Their facial behaviour affected their own emotional experiences. The main purpose of the present study is to determine if virtual rehabilitation program is relevant compared to standard therapy. The second aim is to characterize the efficiency by analysing the time required to obtain a stable score of 4 in the Sunnybrook test. A secondary objective will be to decrease the functional and social repercussions of the facial paralysis with an intensive and targeted therapy of the smile. Furthermore, a virtual rehabilitation program will be implemented in an interactive platform. To this end, a parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the two groups will be conducted: standard therapy versus virtual rehabilitation program. RCT involves a treatment in which active participation of the patient is necessary so only the assessment will be blinded. Facial motor skills (tongue, mouth and face motricity) are measured using electronic devices, objective and subjective evaluation with pragmatic fields such as communication, emotion and quality of life. The severity of patient's facial paralysis is appraised by the House and Brackmann scale. This global assessment will be conducted before the beginning of the therapy and every 3 months during 18 months. The patients will be recruited within the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) service after a baseline assessment. Simple randomization will be used in order to establish both therapeutic groups with 45 patients in each group. Group A: Patients taken care in consultation within the ENT service which provides oro-myo-functional classical rehabilitation. Group B: Patients taken care in external consultation who receive oro-myo-functional rehabilitation through a virtual rehabilitation program targeted at the smile, in their place of living in virtual conditions. The patients must have been diagnosed with unilateral peripheral facial palsy, according to House and Brackmann international classification. Inclusion time : 18 months Between-two-groups analysis will be conducted in order to compare a targeted and intensive implementation-intention rehabilitation such as virtual rehabilitation program to standard therapy. This virtual therapy will consist in repeating mentally movement desired, so that it will be more spontaneously executed in the every-day-life situation.