Myotonic Dystrophy
Abstract
Myotonic dystrophy (MD) is a rare, progressive muscle disease, characterizedby autosomal dominant heredity and multisystem involvement. The muscleinvolvement’s being progressive in MD patients leads to negative effects suchas dependency of the patients in their daily activities. For this reason, medicaltreatment and rehabilitation of these patients are very important. We considered3 patients with MD diagnosis in this series of cases. We made pre-treatment andpost-treatment evaluations of 3 patients who were hospitalized in our clinic bygiving them a 4 week conventional exercise program and functional electricalstimulation (FES) treatment. The rehabilitation program we applied to the patientscontained joint’s range of motion exercises, breathing exercises, standing training,gait training, balance coordination exercises, and FES application to ankle andwrist dorsiflexors. We achieved positive changes in the clinical findings that wedocumented with pre-treatment and post-treatment assessment values.