Intensive Physiotherapy in Children Affected by Posterior Fossa Tumors

The surgery aimed to remove tumors located in the cranial posterior fossa can lead, as a consequence, to a clinical condition of ataxia.

Children affected by this condition are commonly referred to physiotherapy treatment, even though the level of scientific evidence in the field of motor rehabilitation is still lacking.

The objective of the current study is to describe the effectiveness of conventional and intensive physiotherapeutic intervention in improving gross motor skills (i.e. postural changes, walking and balance skills) in children affected by posterior fossa tumors.

By conventional physiotherapy intervention we mean a therapeutic path with a 1:1 operator-patient ratio and which does not make use of robotic or virtual reality devices.

By intensive we mean that it occurs twice a day, 5 days a week, for a duration of four weeks.

Given the high variability in the severity of the clinical pictures, the primary objective will be the patient's improvement in gross motor skills as a whole, which will be identified with the Gross Motor Function Measurment (GMFM) scale.

Changes will also be monitored with respect to the autonomy and assistive care in the daily life of the recruited patients (scored through WeeFIM or FIM), the risk of fall (scored through the Pediatric Balance Scale) and with a sign-specific scale on ataxia (Scale for Assessment and Rating of Ataxia) Finally, for walking patients, walking resistance will be assessed through the 6 minute walking test (6MWT)