AN EVALUATION OF PHYSIOTHERAPY IN THE EARLY TREATMENT OF ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS

¹ Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children, and the Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

The results in this series of 160 cases of recent anterior poliomyelitis extending over a four-year period seem to indicate that the type of early treatment has little or no effect on the course of the disease and alters little, if any, the degree of residual paralysis which is seen.

Clinical evidence shows that the amount of residual involvement is primarily dependent on the degree of initial paralysis and the amount of actual destruction which has taken place in the anterior horn cells. There is no way of accurately determining this during the acute illness, but it is at this time that the die for the final picture is cast, and orthopaedic measures probably alter little, if any, the course of the disease.

Immobilization and protection are indicated for three reasons: (1) the comfort of the patient during the acute stage, (2) the prevention of deformities, and (3) the prevention of stretch paralysis in the involved muscles.

Therefore, the early orthopaedic measures actually employed are of little importance in restoring power to the paralyzed muscles, but may be used so long as they are not actually harmful to the involved muscles.

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