EFFECTIVENESS OF THERAPEUTIC PHYSICAL EXERCISE IN GROSS MOTOR,STRENGTH AND ENDURANCE OF CHILDREN WITH DUCHENNE DISEASE. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: physical exercise related to neuromuscular diseases is postulated as a useful and efficient inter-vention to preserve gross motor skills, autonomy, and delay the loss of strength and other functions. Currently, re-search describes disparity in results, protocols and assessment instruments that make their applicability difficult in patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The objective is to analyze the available scientific evidence about the effects of therapeutic physical exercise on gross motor skills in children diagnosed with DMD.  Material and method: this was carried out by doing a systematic review, following PRISMA’s recommendations, matching the terms “Muscular Dystrophy. Duchenne”, “Neuromuscular Disease”, “Exercise”, “Physical functional perfor-mance” with the operators “and” as well as “or” in the database PubMed/Medline, Lilacs, CINAHL, EBSCO HOST,WOS Core Collection and Scielo. Randomized controlled clinical trials using physical exercise were included. The Cochrane scale was used to assess the risk of bias. In this way, the CERT scale was used to assess training protocols as well. Results: a total number of four articles with a heterogeneous risk of bias was found. In all these stu-dies mentioned above, improvements in gross motor skills using aerobic exercise with ergometer were reported between 23 and 53 % compared with the proposed strength exercises. Conclusions: physical exercise is postulated as a valid tool to influence gross motor skills, loss of functions, strength and endurance in children diagnosed with DMD.