title: Six-year follow-up of early physiotherapy intervention in very low birth weight infants.
abstract: Eighty very low birth weight infants assigned to neurologically normal or at-risk groups on the basis of a neurodevelopmental score were previously described. Infants were assigned to physiotherapy or control groups, and the effect of physiotherapy was assessed at 1 year. At-risk infants had a significantly lower developmental quotient than the normal group and no beneficial effect of physiotherapy was shown. Of the original 80 subjects, 49 were reassessed at a mean age of 74.7 months. As observed previously, physiotherapy until 1 year did not influence subsequent outcome in either normal or at-risk children. At-risk and normal children had similar mean developmental quotients at 6 years, but the locomotor score of at-risk children was significantly below that of normal children. Cerebral palsy occurred in 6 of 24 at-risk vs 0 of 25 normal subjects (P less than .01) and remedial therapy was recommended in 17 of 24 at-risk subjects vs 6 of 25 normal subjects (P less than .001). These results confirm that the neurodevelopmental score predicts a risk for either cerebral palsy or soft neurological problems, and early physiotherapy is of questionable benefit in preventing such problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Rothberg
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Jacklin
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Cooper
mesh_terms: D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000254:growth & development; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000209:etiology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight / Q000254:growth & development*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000254:growth & development*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012307:Risk Factors