Changes in the electromyography of the lateral and medial muscles after the electrostimulation treatment of lateral muscles in children with convergent concomitant strabismus

Abstract

Purpose It is known that physiotherapeutic treatment of convergent concomitant strabismus with electrostimulation of extraocular rectus muscles is applied. Assessment of changes in the electromyography of the muscles after the course of treatment was not carried out, due to absence of a method of surface electromyography (SEMG) of the rectus muscles.To identify changes in the SEMG before and after electrostimulation of the external rectus muscles in children with concomitant strabismus the work was done Methods Electrostimulation of the lateral rectus muscles of both eyes was performed using the Amplipulse‐5 apparatus in a standard procedure in 12 children (24 eyes) with convergent concomitant strabismus with deviation 12‐ 24pr.dptr. SEMG was done with the M‐TEST‐2 electromyograph, according to the method developed by us earlier. Patients were examined before and after treatment. Results Amplitudes of the biopotentials of the SEMG of the lateral rectus muscle decreased slightly after treatment (11,55 ± 2,3 mV ÷ 10,64 ± 0,7 mV, p> 0.05), while the frequency increased significantly (49, 7 ± 3,6Hz ÷ 63,18 ± 8,2Hz, p <0.05). Ranges of the SEMG biopotential amplitudes and frequency of the medial rectus muscle decreased slightly after treatment (11.48 ± 0.5 mV ÷ 10.2 ± 0.9 mV, 101.96 ± 5.6 Hz ÷ 94.7 ± 19, 5 Hz, p> 0.05).Deviation became less in average on 12,2±4,6 pr.dptr. en with concomitant strabismus. Conclusions The method of surface electromyography allows estimating changes in the biopotentials of the external rectus of the eye before and after electrostimulation (amplitude, frequency). Electrostimulation treatment decrease the imbalance between the lateral and medial rectus muscles biopotentials of SEMG in children with a convergent concomitant strabismus.