Functional improvement after pediatric spinal cord injury

OBJECTIVE: To describe the functional gain (FGain) with pediatric spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation and to identify the relationship of various factors to FGain in pediatric spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of a series of 91 children with spinal cord injury admitted from 1993 to 1998 in a freestanding rehabilitation hospital. Admission and discharge functional status were assessed with the Pediatric Functional Independence Measure (WeeFIM) instrument for children 7 yr. The outcome measure is the FGain (difference between the discharge and admission functional status). RESULTS: Significant gains in functional status were observed in all patients. FGain was not significantly related to age, sex, length of inpatient rehabilitation, pathogenesis, or completeness or neurologic level of injury. However, there was a trend for higher FGain for patients with incomplete spinal cord injury and traumatic spinal cord injury. CONCLUSIONS: Functional improvement occurs with pediatric spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation. There is a trend for higher FGain in patients with less severe injury and traumatic injury. The lack of relationship between FGain and length of inpatient rehabilitation suggests that a variety of other factors influence the relationship between FGain and length of inpatient rehabilitation.