PURPOSE: To determine whether functional electrical stimulation (FES) is effective and whether it is more effective than activity training alone. METHOD: Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, and PEDro databases were searched for randomized trials. Studies of randomized trials were included if the participants were children (< 18 years old) with spastic cerebral palsy, who underwent a program of FES that involved electrical stimulation during practice of an activity. Measures of activity that best reflected the activity trained were examined. RESULTS: Five randomized trials were included. Three trials reported statistically significant between-group differences in favor of FES compared with no FES. Two trials reported no statistically significant between-group differences of FES compared with activity training alone. CONCLUSION: The available evidence suggests that FES is more effective than no FES but that it has a similar effect as activity training alone in cerebral palsy.
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