After having a CP patient with severe hypertonia, I wanted to find some treatment options and found this study to be interesting. After starting a registration program for all CP patients in Sweden in 1994, several treatment studies began. These studies are linked to the following article.
A study in southern Sweden was initiated to analyze the development of spasticity with age in all children with CP from 0 to 15 years during the period 1995-2006. Measurements of muscle tone in the gastrocnemius-soleus muscle according to the modified Ashworth scale were analyzed. The CP subtypes were classified according to the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe network system based on 6218 examinations in 547. The degree of muscle tone increased up to 4 years of age, but decreased each year up to 12 years of age. The same tendency is seen in all spastic subtypes. The findings may have implications both for clinical judgement and for research studies on spasticity treatment.
The original article citation is: BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2008 Nov 6;9(1):150.
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Interesting post. For as many patients as I see with CP and spasticity, I suppose I ought to know a bit more about it. I did have trouble pulling the article though. Bum link. :(
Found it! Here is a link.
The study includes over 6000 examinations of over 500 children, which is great. Interestingly, they did include those children who had had botulinum toxin injections in their analysis. They did their numbers both with and without including kids who had had surgical intervention. When surgical interventions were not included, the transition ages were 6 and 12, which would be more in line with the natural course of things.
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