Infectious disease of the spine is infrequently seen in the rehabilitation setting. We examined retrospectively 26 patients with spinal infections admitted to the rehabilitation centre over a 6-year period to determine the demographic characteristics, clinical features and outcome after rehabilitation.Their ages ranged from 24 to 83 years (mean=56.4); 65.4% were males. The infection was due to pyogenic bacteria in 14 patients (53.8%) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 12 (46.2%). Staphylococcus aureus was the causative agent in 69% of those with pyogenic infections. A history of diabetes mellitus was present in 35.7% of the pyogenic group but in only 8.3% of the tuberculous group. Localised back pain, fever and neurological de®cits were the typical clinical manifestations. The most common site of infection was the thoracic region. Surgery was performed on 24 patients and all received prolonged courses of antibiotics.All but three patients completed the rehabilitation programme. The motor score for the lower limbs and the modi®ed Barthel scores for activities of daily living (ADL) and mobility improved signi®cantly (P50.05) for both pyogenic and tuberculous groups. The amounts of improvement achieved were not signi®cantly di erent between the pyogenic and tuberculous groups except for ADL. Age, gender and the presence of diabetes mellitus did not appear to signi®cantly a ect the neurological or functional outcome in our study population. The majority of patients (87.5%) were discharged to their own homes.

Children and adolescents who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be left with multiple deficits and impairments that can impact adversely their abilities to return to pre-morbid functioning in the home, school and community. Early rehabilitation has been shown to improve functional outcome; the rehabilitation programme itself has to be based on real-world demands and experiences. Rehabilitation has to be continued beyond the post-acute stage in order to promote neuronal re-organisation, monitor the child’s development as well as identify and manage new issues that may appear with growth, development and maturation. The availability of relevant research data and findings for children is much less than those for adults. It is not always appropriate to apply data for adults to the younger persons due to important differences in the 2 groups and these are discussed in more detail in the article. Multiple factors have been found to affect recovery and functional outcome. Apart from age and developmental stage at injury, other variables can be grouped as injury-related, patient-related and treatment-related factors. The goals and components of the rehabilitation process are examined for the various stages of recovery and the last section of the article describes the paediatric rehabilitation scene in Singapore. Key words: Development, Family involvement, Functional outcome, Interdisciplinary, Neuroplasticity

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