External Pelvic Floor Biofeedback for Children With Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Series.
Case Report
External Pelvic Floor Biofeedback for Children With Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Series.
Neurogenic bladder can negatively affect quality of life for children with incomplete spinal cord injury. Occupational therapy practitioners are uniquely able to provide individualized care to address this, which may include external pelvic floor biofeedback./r/nTo describe the implementation of external pelvic floor biofeedback for bladder management within the context of toileting for children with neurogenic bladder dysfunction following incomplete spinal cord injury./r/nRetrospective case series./r/nInpatient rehabilitation unit within a pediatric hospital./r/nThree children with incomplete spinal cord injury were enrolled./r/nExternal pelvic floor biofeedback./r/nThe study used the Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM®), Activity Measure for Post-Acute Care (AM-PAC) Daily Activities Short Form, Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury Activity Measures (PEDI-SCI AM) Short Forms, and voiding characteristics./r/nNo adverse events occurred. Following biofeedback, all children improved their AM-PAC toileting scores, and PEDI-SCI AM scores improved for 2 of 3 children, whereas daily catheterization requirements decreased for all children. The WeeFIM did not detect changes in bladder management for 2 of 3 children./r/nThis case report described how occupational therapy practitioners used external pelvic floor biofeedback as an adjunct conservative treatment strategy when providing care for pediatric children with recent incomplete spinal cord injury. Plain-Language Summary: Neurogenic bladder dysfunction following incomplete spinal cord injury can negatively affect a child’s quality of life and social participation. Occupational therapy practitioners are uniquely able to address bladder management within the context of toileting for children with acquired incomplete spinal cord injury. A multimodal approach, which includes biofeedback, may improve the child’s level of independence with toileting.
