Device for stretching spastic hip adductor muscles. Suggestion from the field.

The application of low loads over prolonged periods of time as a means of lengthening shortened soft tissues and reducing hypertonus is well supported in the literature." Techniques are not always available, however, for the practical application of such loads in a clinical setting, particularly for patients with decreased range of motion associated with spastic musculature. A specific movement that is frequently reduced in patients with increased tone in the muscles of their lower extremities is hip abduction. Odeen reported increased voluntary and passive hip abduction after both single and repeated 30-minute periods of hip adductor muscle stretch. They had patients with spastic paraparesis use a device that helped them to gradually increase their hip abduction by turning a wheel which in turn separated their legs.