Efficacy of intrathecal baclofen therapy in children with intractable spastic cerebral palsy: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Intractable spasticity can be treated effectively with continuous infusion of intrathecal baclofen. Because evidence for its use in the treatment of children with spastic cerebral palsy is lacking, we conducted a randomised controlled trial.

Aims: To test whether continuous infusion of intrathecal baclofen is effective in comparison with standard treatment only.

Safety and one-year efficacy of intrathecal baclofen therapy in children with intractable spastic cerebral palsy.

Background: Prospective studies that address both efficacy and safety of continuous infusion of intrathecal baclofen (CITB) in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP), and that use outcome measures beyond muscle tone are lacking.

Aims: To study the efficacy at 12 months and safety up to 24 months after start of CITB in children with intractable spastic CP.

Methods: Nine girls and eight boys, aged 13.

Intrathecal baclofen in children with spastic cerebral palsy: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-finding study.

Intrathecal baclofen (ITB) therapy can be very effective in the treatment of intractable spasticity, but its effectiveness and safety have not yet been thoroughly studied in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The aims of this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-finding study were to select children eligible for continuous ITB infusion, to assess the effective ITB bolus dose, and to evaluate the effects, side effects, and complications. Outcome measures included the original Ashworth scale and the Visual Analogue Scale for individually formulated problems.

The development of a quality system for neuromodulation in the Netherlands.

We present here a descriptive article on the development of a national quality system for neuromodulatory techniques in the Netherlands. In 1994, due to reimbursement difficulties in the Netherlands, a Neuromodulation Working Group (WGN) undertook an initiative to develop a national quality system for neuromodulation. It was believed that with official recognition of neuromodulation as a therapy by the health authorities in the Netherlands, a quality system for monitoring would then follow.