ORIGINAL ARTICLES   Free access

Europa Medicophysica 1998 March;34(1):39-43

Copyright © 1998 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The cerebral palsy patient with spastic tetraplegia and associated respiratory dysfunction

Bianchi C., Dal Brun A., Rossi S., Brambilla A.

Rehabilitation Division, Istituto Sacra Famiglia - Cesano Boscone (Milano), Italy

The sur­vi­val of sub­jects ­with spas­tic tet­ra­ple­gia (ST) has ­improved. Acute or chron­ic res­pir­a­to­ry con­di­tions are ­often sec­on­dary to ­false tra­cheal ­tracts and gas­tro-esoph­a­geal ­reflux (GER). The aim of ­this ­study was to ­assess the rela­tion­ship ­between a clin­i­cal his­to­ry of bron­chop­neu­mo­nitis and pres­ence of ­false tra­cheal ­tracts or GER in 75 ­patients ­with ST and men­tal retar­da­tion (hos­pit­al­ised and out-­patients). Dynamic vid­eo­flu­o­ros­cop­ic X-ray inves­ti­ga­tion ­with sol­id and liq­uid con­trast medi­um was per­formed in all ­patients. Results ­showed the rel­a­tive­ly fre­quent occur­rence of ­false tra­cheal ­tracts and GER in the sam­ple stud­ied. There was no sig­nif­i­cant cor­re­la­tion ­between ­these find­ings and the clin­i­cal his­to­ry of res­pir­a­to­ry prob­lems. The ­authors dis­cuss why ­false tra­cheal ­tracts and GER ­should be con­sid­ered in dif­fe­ren­tial diag­no­sis in the cau­sal inter­pre­ta­tion of the res­pir­a­to­ry prob­lems of ST ­patients.