Volume 28, Issue 1, Spring

In the spring edition of the Pediatric Physical Therapy podcast Kelly Lombard from Boston Children’s Hospital, MA talks about the benefits of intense physical therapy in a child who had a left ventricular assist device fitted as a bridge to cardiac transplantation after having a stroke. Rebecca Reubens from the University of South Florida in Tampa explains how a child with cerebral palsy benefited from physical therapy during an accelerated growth phase. Universal documenting is needed to assess physical therapy effectiveness in cerebral palsy according to Mary Gannotti of the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. Laura Gilchrist from Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in Minneapolis explains why: Monitoring ankle range of motion to assess balance and measuring strength to assess walking capacity in patients with step-length abnormalities brings benefit to young patients cured of cancer but experiencing gait abnormalities caused by chemotherapy induced neuropathy. And: Therapists and surgeons are in agreement on the diagnosis of gait abnormalities, reports Stacey Miller from British Columbia Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. Also in the podcast: We hear about an investigation of bone mineral content in infants with spina bifida by Do Kyeong Lee from New York University in New York City. She found it improves with regular exercise training from just a few weeks of age continued during the first year of life.