Introduction:

The therapeutic suit or Therasuit is a complementary therapy used in rehabilitation for intensive training of motor patterns in people with cerebral palsy.

Objective:

To describe the changes in the motor function in a pediatric population with different types of cerebral palsys.

Methods:

Observational, longitudinal and retrospective study in which the gross motor functions were measured before and after trying the therapeutic suit in 56 children admitted in the Center of Neurorehabilitation in Cali, Colombia from June 2008 to December 2014. The 56 participants had ages from 3 to 13 years, and levels from I to V according to the Classification of Gross Motor Function (GMFCS). Wicolxon test was used to compare the median scores of the 88-item Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-66) scale scores applied to children before and after the treatment with the suit.

Results:

After the application of the suit in children with CP, the differences in the measurements of GMFM-88 were effective (p= 0). Stratification of the population studied by age registered positive differences (dif. = 2 a 2,5 p<0,05) in all ages and greater in children aged 11 to 13 years in the total scores.

Conclusions:

The positive changes observed after applying the therapeutic suit to children with cerebral paralysis suggest that motor training with this therapeutic approach is effective for the achievement of gross motor skills. The change is more evident in children with severe manifestations and spasticity.

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