Early rehabilitation improves postsurgery neurofunctional outcome in spinal tumor children

In children, primary spinal tumors comprise 4% of all tumors from the central nervous system. Spinal tumors can present with a variety of clinical signs and symptoms in children such as pain followed by motor regression, gait disturbance, sphincter dysfunction, sensory symptoms, torticollis, and kyphoscoliosis. Treatment of spinal tumors is based on tumor type, but surgical resection is the mainstay.

Moreover, physical treatment and rehabilitation implementation are necessary in order to minimize the symptoms of the patients and develop present functions. Prof. Nezire Kose and co-workers from Faculty of Health Sciences, Hacettepe University in Turkey reviewed the medical charts and radiographic records of 70 pediatric patients (1 years old) who received spinal tumor surgical removal. They found that the sensory function, motor function and activity of daily living of pediatric children who received early rehabilitation at day 4 after surgery were significantly improved.

These findings, published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 2, 2014), indicate that rehabilitation programs initiated earlier are effective in achieving functional independency levels and recovery of neurological functions. .

More information:
Kose N, Muezzinoglu O, Bilgin S, Karahan S, Isıkay I, Bilginer B. Early rehabilitation improves neurofunctional outcome after surgery in children with spinal tumors. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(2):129-134.

Provided by Neural Regeneration Research