Upper extremity function in spina bifida

✍ Scribed by Jette Jansen; Karen Taudorf; Hans Pedersen; Kirsten Jensen; Åse Seitzberg; Torben Smith

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 472 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0256-7040
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00247859

✦ Synopsis

Poor upper extremity function is often recorded in meningomyelocele patients. Only 2 of the 25 patients we assessed, 5 to 19 years old, showed normal upper extremity function in the clinical neurological examination and a timed hand function test simulating daily activities. Slow performance with unsystematic variability was typical. Poor hand function correlated strongly with hydrocephalus. A trend towards better performance with increasing age may indicate that the difficulties are overcome in some patients. While patients without hydrocephalus showed a near-normal distribution in the seven subtests, patients with hydrocephalus needed more time than normal children. Patients with shunt-treated hydrocephalus did not cope as well as patients without a shunt. Mean age in the three groups differed and may partly explain the differences.