Pairing transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation with an intensive bimanual training in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: study protocol of a randomized sham-controlled trial.

Background: Gross motor function impairments and manual dexterity deficits are frequently observed in children and adolescents with Cerebral Palsy (CP), having a major impact on their activity level and autonomy. Improving manual dexterity and activity level of patients with CP is often the focus of rehabilitation. Novel and adjuvant treatment methods that could support the standard training also in chronic conditions are a research priority.

Care Pathways in Rehabilitation for Children and Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy: Distinctiveness of the Adaptation to the Italian Context.

Background: In 2020, a multiprofessional panel was set up in collaboration with the Italian FightTheStroke Foundation family association to produce evidence-based recommendations for the management and neuromotor rehabilitation of persons with cerebral palsy aged 2-18 years to implement in clinical practice in Italy.

Methods: The recommendations of these care pathways were developed according to the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine guidelines for Care Pathways Development and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation working group for adoption, adaptation, or de novo development of recommendations from high-quality guidelines (GRADE-ADOLOPMENT).

Results: Four strong positive recommendations were developed regarding comprehensive management, and twenty-four addressed neuromotor treatment.

Evidence-based management and motor rehabilitation of cerebral palsy children and adolescents: a systematic review.

Background: Evidence regarding the management of several aspects of cerebral palsy improved in recent years. Still, discrepancies are reported in clinical practice. Italian professionals and stakeholders expressed the need of setting up updated, evidenced-based, shared statements, to address clinical practice in cerebral palsy rehabilitation.

Could an Immersive Virtual Reality Training Improve Navigation Skills in Children with Cerebral Palsy? A Pilot Controlled Study.

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) suffer deficits in their motor, sensory, and cognitive abilities, as well as in their visuospatial competences. In the last years, several authors have tried to correlate the visuospatial abilities with the navigational ones. Given their importance in everyday functions, navigation skills have been deeply studied using increasingly cutting-edge techniques such as virtual reality (VR).

Learning My Way: A Pilot Study of Navigation Skills in Cerebral Palsy in Immersive Virtual Reality.

Human navigation skills are essential for everyday life and rely on several cognitive abilities, among which visual-spatial competences that are impaired in subjects with cerebral palsy (CP). In this work, we proposed navigation tasks in immersive virtual reality (IVR) to 15 children with CP and 13 typically developing (TD) peers in order to assess the individual navigation strategies and their modifiability in a situation resembling real life. We developed and adapted to IVR an application based on a 5-way maze in a playground that was to be navigated to find a reward.