Performance of aquatic physiotherapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: integrative literature review

Abstract

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system, characterized by rapid progression and disability, resulting in muscle atrophy, generalized weakness and fasciculations, marked by bulbar involvement, causing dysarthria, dysphagia and respiratory distress. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate, through an integrative literature review, the intervention of aquatic physical therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Methods: It consists of an integrative review developed based on the PICO strategy and registered on the PROSPERO platform - International prospective register of systematic reviews, 2020, following the recommendations of the PRISMA checklist, covering the reading, analysis and interpretation of articles published in full, in journals scientific articles made available in their online format in English and Portuguese in the Pubmed, Medline, Cochrane Library and Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) databases, which addressed the performance of aquatic physiotherapy, presenting their results and adopted behaviors. Results: Of the 1,093 articles found, 5 were selected for this review, respectively, a randomized study with a group of 22 people, 2 case studies with 1 person, in each study, male, a systematic review of the literature identified 31 studies that evaluated the use of aquatic physical therapy as a treatment in one of the four neurological conditions, overview of the effects of physical training in rats and patients affected by ALS, through a literature review. Conclusion: Studies show that aquatic physical therapy has a promising future, being considered an important therapeutic resource for patients with ALS, benefiting not only physical and functional issues, being important for psychological aspects and socialization.