Long Term Functional Outcomes After SDR

Long term follow up data was analyzed pre-operatively, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and 15 years from 102 patients with spastic cerebral palsy who had a selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR).  The results indicated the following:

• statistically significant improvements seen in spasticity, Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), activities of daily living up to 10 and 15 years after SDR (ie, though adolescence and into early adulthood).
• when severity of the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) was taken into account the researchers found longlasting improvements through adolescence, which were not seen in the previously reported natural history curves for patients who did not have SDR
• patients had half as many orthopedic procedures as reported in the literature for patients without SDR

Reference: Dudley RW, Parolin M, Gagnon B, Saluja RS, Yap R, Monpetit K, Ruck J, Poulin C, Cantin MA, Benaroch T, Farmer JP. Beneficial Functional Outcomes of Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) Are Long Lasting and Alter the Natural History of Motor Development in Spastic Cerebral Palsy. Neurosurgery. 2012 Aug;71(2):E564-5.