EFEITOS DA REEDUCAÇÃO POSTURAL GLOBAL (RPG) SOBRE A HIPERCIFOSE TORÁCICA: UM ESTUDO DE CASO

Global Posture Re-education (GPR) has been used in the prevention and rehabilitation of postural alterations, especially in disorders of the spine, although its effects in the treatment of thoracic hyperkyphosis are still poorly described in the literature. The aim of this study was to verify the effects of GPR treatment in a female subject with thoracic kyphosis. The patient underwent 10 one-hour sessions of GPR. The sessions were composed of two postures: the “frog on the floor with open arms” posture and “standing against the wall” posture. Data were collected using the flexicurve instrument before the beginning of the treatment (pre-test), before and after each treatment and one week after the last treatment session (post-test), obtaining measurements from the curvature angles of the spine. A descriptive analysis was performed with mean, standard deviation and frequencies. In order to check whether there were differences between measurements before and after each session, the session average was calculated and compared from the Mann-Whitney test. The analyses were performed using the SPSS 17.0 software (α = 0.05). The results of the study showed that the GPR treatment was effective, on average, after each treatment session, in the immediate decrease in thoracic kyphosis (U = 23,5; p = 0,045, r=0,45). It was also found that a 10-week GPR treatment was effective in reducing thoracic kyphosis, that is, it reduced the thoracic kyphosis angle from 53.9° to 49°. In conclusion, GPR presented an acute effect on the reduction of thoracic hyperkhphosis in the studied case after each treatment session and after 10 weeks of intervention.