Review of Paediatric Neurological Conditions Seen in the Physiotherapy Department of a Children’s Hospital in Ibadan, Nigeria

Management of paediatric neurological conditions involves a multidisciplinary team approach with Physiotherapy being an important member of the team. This study investigated the proportion that neurological conditions accounted for of the total number of paediatric conditions managed at the Physiotherapy Department of the Oni Memorial Children Hospital, Ibadan between January 2004 and December 2006 and also reviewed the specific neurological conditions. Records of all the patients managed during the study period reviewed were identified from which the neurological cases were sorted out and data on specific diagnosis, age and gender were collated. A total of 546 paediatric cases were reviewed out of which 471 (86.3%) were neurological cases with mean age of 25.3± 25.2 months and a 1.3: 1.0 male to female ratio. Cerebral palsy {CP}, predominantly the spastic quadriplegic type, accounted for majority (43.7%) of cases. Traumatic sciatic nerve palsy was the cause of physiotherapy attendance in 35.5% of cases while Obstetric brachial plexus injury accounted [10.8%) of cases. Other conditions were Central Nervous System Infections, Down’s syndrome and Paralysis of unspecified diagnosis, Radial and Facial nerve palsies and Gullian Barre syndrome. A case is made for the deployment of more resources (funds, facilities and health personnels) for the care of neurological paediatric conditions