The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 71, Issue 1 56-61, Copyright © 1989 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Orthopaedic management of high-level spina bifida. Early walking compared with early use of a wheelchair
JM Mazur, D Shurtleff, M Menelaus and J Colliver
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.
To determine whether it is worth while to encourage patients who have
high-level spina bifida to walk at an early age, we compared the cases of
thirty-six patients who had participated in a walking program with those of
thirty-six patients for whom a wheelchair had been prescribed early in
life. The patients in the two groups were matched for age, sex, level of
the lesion, and intelligence. Only twelve of the patients who had been able
to walk at an early age were still able to do so effectively at the time of
this study, when their ages ranged from twelve to twenty years, but still
these patients fared somewhat better than the other patients did. The
patients who walked early had fewer fractures and pressure sores, were more
independent, and were better able to transfer than were the patients who
had used a wheelchair from early in life. However, during childhood and
early adolescence, the patients who had always used a wheelchair had spent
fewer days in the hospital than did those who had participated in the
walking program. There were no major differences between the two groups
with regard to skills of daily living, function of the hands, and frequency
and severity of obesity.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Facebook 
Technorati 
Twitter What's this?
