PEDIATRICS Vol. 88 No. 3 September 1991, pp. 547-552
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Six-Year Follow-up of Early Physiotherapy Intervention in Very Low Birth Weight Infants

Alan D. Rothberg MBBCh, FCP(SA)1, Muriel Goodman PhD2, Loma A. Jacklin MBBCh, FCP(SA)1, and Peter A. Cooper MBChB, FCP(SA)1

1 The Department of Paediatrics University of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa
2 The Department of Physiotherapy, University of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa

Eighty very low birth weight infants assigned to neurologically normal or at-risk groups on the basis of a neurodevelopmental score were previously described. Infants were assigned to physiotherapy or control groups, and the effect of physiotherapy was assessed at 1 year. At-risk infants had a significantly lower developmental quotient than the normal group and no beneficial effect of physiotherapy was shown. Of the original 80 subjects, 49 were reassessed at a mean age of 74.7 months. As observed previously, physiotherapy until 1 year did not influence subsequent outcome in either normal or at risk children. At-risk and normal children had similar mean developmental quotients at 6 years, but the loco-motor score of at-risk children was significantly below that of normal children. Cerebral palsy occurred in 6 of 24 at-risk vs 0 of 25 normal subjects (P <.01) and remedial therapy was recommended in 17 of 24 at-risk subjects vs 6 of 25 normal subjects (P <.001). These results confirm that the neurodevelopmental score predicts a risk for either cerebral palsy or soft neurological problems, and early physiotherapy is of questionable benefit in preventing such problems.

Key Words: very low birth weight infants • cerebral palsy • neurologic development • physiotherapy • developmental quotient

Submitted on July 5, 1990
Accepted on September 7, 1990


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