Covering a 20-year period of work with children with severe cerebral palsy (CP) within a Swedish habilitation service, changes in passive wrist extension with fingers extended (PWE-FE) and current hand function are described and compared between children receiving systematic upper-extremity treatment with botulinum neurotoxin type A and intervention programs from before 7 years of age (Group 1, n = 7), those whom for various reasons did not undergo this treatment (Group 2, n = 10), and those not having the option to receive treatment until later during childhood/adolescence (Group 3, n = 8). Group 3 showed more critical and less normal PWE-FE values for both wrists, and poorer hand function scores, particularly compared with Group 1. Findings cautiously suggest that repeated upper-extremity spasticity-reducing treatment and movement training/orthoses from an early age may help prevent critical loss of passive range of motion of the wrist joint flexion/extension and promote hand function development in children with severe CP.

No abstract