Pneumorrhachis: A rare cause of headache in a patient with a traumatic spinal cord injury due to gunshot wound.

Context: A pneumorrhachis (PR) is a rare phenomenon in which air is found in the spinal canal. There are multiple etiologies, including iatrogenic, nontraumatic, and traumatic. Most traumatic PR are asymptomatic and resolve on their own, but a subset are symptomatic and require urgent surgical intervention.

Ankle passive and active movement training in children with acute brain injury using a wearable robot.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a wearable robotic device in guiding isometric torque generation and passive-active movement training for ankle motor recovery in children with acute brain injury.

Participants/setting: Ten inpatient children with acute brain injury being treated in a rehabilitation hospital.

Design: Daily robot-guided ankle passive-active movement therapy for 15 sessions, including isometric torque generation under real-time feedback, stretch-ing, and active movement training with motivating games using a wearable ankle rehabilitation robot.

Caffeine as a neurostimulant: Two pediatric acquired brain injury cases.

Objective: This report describes two pediatric patients undergoing acute inpatient rehabilitation for acquired brain injury.

Design: The first patient was a 16-year-old African American female with an acquired brain injury from multiple intracranial hemorrhages secondary to an arteriovenous malformation. The second patient was a 16 year-old African American male who sustained a traumatic brain injury due to assault.

Pilot study: investigating the effects of Kinesio Taping in an acute pediatric rehabilitation setting.

Objectives: The purpose of this pilot study is to describe the use of the Kinesio Taping method for the upper extremity in enhancing functional motor skills in children admitted into an acute rehabilitation program.

Method: Fifteen children (10 females and 5 males; 4 to 16 years of age), who were receiving rehabilitation services at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago participated in this study. For 13 of the inpatients, this was the initial rehabilitation following an acquired disability, which included encephalitis, brain tumor, cerebral vascular accident, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury.

Pain management in a pediatric rehabilitation setting.

This article reviews the current understanding of pain evaluation as applied to children who have chronic illness and disabilities. Utilizing a collaborative medical approach, psychiatric principles of management are discussed. Case scenarios are presented to outline application of general strategies of clinical management.

Functional improvement after pediatric spinal cord injury.

Objective: To describe the functional gain (FGain) with pediatric spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation and to identify the relationship of various factors to FGain in pediatric spinal cord injury inpatient rehabilitation.

Design: Retrospective chart review of a series of 91 children with spinal cord injury admitted from 1993 to 1998 in a freestanding rehabilitation hospital. Admission and discharge functional status were assessed with the Pediatric Functional Independence Measure (WeeFIM) instrument for children 7 yr.