Abstract

Goal: to analyze the existing scientific literature on the effects of a hydrotherapy or aquatic therapy program in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). Material and method: this document is a review of articles from 1994 to 2014. A systematic research was done over the following databases: Pubmed, PEDro, Enfispo, IME and Academic Google; and the following key words were used: Aquatic therapy, Aquatic therapy program, Aquatic, Aquatic physical therapy, Hydrotherapy, Hidroterapia, Cerebral palsy, Parálisis cerebral, Children, Child, Infants, Adolescent, Adolescents. The inclusion criteria were: the principal treatment should consist of a hydrotherapy program with physiotherapy aims, patients should be children or adolescents with CP, the papers should be published in Spanish or English (or have a summary with enough data written in one of these languages) and they should have been published since 1994. Finally, 163 documents were found, 10 of which were included and 153 were removed. Results: beneficial results have been found, mainly improvements in cardiorespiratory endurance, as well as in gross motor skills, muscle spasticity, range of movement and water orientation skills after hydrotherapy treatment. Conclusions: a hydrotherapy program is beneficial for children and adolescents with CP, but it is necessary to do more studies with a larger sample and with better methodological quality.