The Immediate Effects of Spiral Kinesio Taping on In-toeing Gait Pattern in Children with Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy

Background Objective: In-toeing is the most common gait pattern in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (CP). Kinesio Taping (KT) has been suggested to improve the function and posture of children with CP. No study has yet evaluated the effects of spiral KT on this gait pattern. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether spiral KT could improve in-toeing in children with spastic diplegic CP. Materials Methods: This pre-post designed experimental study was performed on 14 patients with spastic diplegic CP aged between 6 and 10 years at the first level of the Gross Motor Function Classification System. KT was applied spirally with 100% of available tension. Hip, knee, and ankle joint angles in the transverse plane and spatio-temporal parameters including velocity and duration of stride were measured before and immediately after the intervention. Results: The results showed a significant decrease in hip (p=0.04) and knee (p 0.001) internal rotation, foot adduction, and abduction (p 0.001) in the transverse plane after using KT. Also, significant differences were found for spatio-temporal indices including velocity (p 0.001) and duration of stride (p 0.001). Conclusion: Spiral KT with 100% of available tension immediately improved the spatio-temporal indices of in-toeing gait pattern in children with spastic diplegic CP. Hence, clinicians can use the applied method to improve the gait pattern in this group of CP children.