Modalities of physical therapy applicable in the pediatric population
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13112/pc.1096Keywords:
physical therapy modalities; rehabilitation; pediatrics; musculoskeletal diseasesAbstract
In pediatric rehabilitation, we face a number of difficulties related to the musculoskeletal system every day, both from the growing incidence of diseases and injuries and the increasing occurrence of neurodevelopmental disorders. Conservative treatment of pain conditions in the pediatric population is a current topic in the scientific literature due to the high cost of treatment. Taking into account the fact that chronic pain in childhood is a predisposing factor for chronic pain in adulthood, increasing emphasis is being placed on physical therapy modalities in the treatment of pain syndromes in pediatrics in order to reduce the use of medications in children. Children are not small people; they have psychological and physiological characteristics specific to their age, and we cannot treat them as adults. Therefore, research in this area that has been conducted on the adult population is not applicable to the pediatric population, and high-quality scientific research is rare in the field of pediatric rehabilitation, since it must go through several levels of approval and respond to numerous challenges (parental involvement, setting the age limit for participation in research, and additional permissions for certain protocols). Precisely due to the lack of research and the lack of consensus, it is almost impossible to be guided exclusively by an evidence-based approach. The aim of this paper is to present physical therapy modalities applicable in pediatric rehabilitation, based on available literature data, personal clinical experiences, and conclusions we reached at the Congress of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine in March 2024.
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