United States – A surgical intervention that is aimed at assisting children in the age range of 7- 10 years who have cerebral palsy to walk also benefits older kids as well as teenagers who have cerebral palsy, according to a study that has received significant recognition.
There was also a small sample size of older kids in the study, which surprised the researchers because the group was thought to perform worse. Nonetheless, there were no significant differences between the outcomes of the two groups, as reported by HealthDay.
The procedure in question is known as SEMLS, short for single-event multilevel surgery. This is an acceptable intervention procedure used in helping children with cerebral palsy to gain functioning.
The SEMLS Procedure
The new study included 126 youngsters with CP who were examined in the motion and sports analysis lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles between 2011 and 2023.
The lab is one of only 23 pediatric motion labs worldwide and has a 10-camera system for imaging a patient’s walk and motion.
The patients who took part in the study had completed at least two gait tests—the initial one before SEMLS and the second one later.
Study Groups and Metrics
The patients were divided into two groups, including the pediatric group of individuals less than 13 years of age and adolescents or young adults of 13 to 21 years of age. They looked at two factors: _the gait_ deviation index (GDI), which compares a patient’s gait to that of a typical subject, and the functional mobility scale (FMS), which measures children’s mobility at distances that approximate community, school, and home environments.
The study established that GDI increased by 6 in the year under consideration. It obtained 1 point in the younger kids and 6. This translated to 4 points in the older group. FMS was at least maintained or improved in 80–90% of the children in both groups.
Presentation and Ongoing Research
The presented findings were made Monday during the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society conference in Atlanta. However, data being presented during meetings are often referred to as primary findings until they are published in PubMed-indexed journals.
Regardless, “this [finding] shows that even if patients are well into their teens, they can still benefit from SEMLS,” Kay said in a hospital news release, as reported by HealthDay.
However, according to Kay, the best age to undergo the surgery is when children are between 7 and 10 years old.
“All things being equal, I would rather perform this surgery earlier rather than later,” he said. “But we have kids who don’t even come to us until they are teens. If they have the right indications for surgery, we still have an opportunity to help them walk better.”