Meetings & Publications

<<Back to previous page

Developments in the Management of Cerebral Palsy

In autumn 2008 ISPO organised its second international conference on cerebral palsy.  The full published report is available at http://www.ispoweb.org/HTML/2009/ispo_cp_report.pdf. This detailed report covers the wide ranging findings of the multi-disciplinary group of experts who reviewed current evidence on major therapy, medical and surgical interventions in use today.

On 14 & 15 January 2010, ISPO UK NMS was pleased to host a major national multi-disciplinary meeting on the findings of the international consensus conference  This event brought  together an international faculty who reported the conclusions and continuing dialogue. 

A total of 120 healthcare professionals from the UK and Scandinavia attended. They represented all of the members of the health care team. Not only was the content of the presentations up to date and authoritative, the discussion sessions that followed served to clarify and exchange information between the many disciplines represented. This process amplifies the importance of the team approach to management which is the backbone of ISPO.

Both the original Consensus Conference held in Durham, North Carolina and the update workshop concluded that the strength of available research in the orthotic management of Cerebral Palsy was lacking.  Some of the suggestions for future research emerging from the discussions included:-

• Consider the importance of foot ware when evaluating AFO fabrication. 
• Existing research is often non-reproducible do to deficient information on methods.
• Orthotists must be involved when orthotic research is conducted.
• Encourage institutional set aside time for research
• Encourage “one off reports”
• Use social media websites for illustrating methods
• Teach better research consumption
• Incorporate research methodology in P&O curriculum
• ISPO organized research methods symposia
• Establish protocols that compare relevancy of gait labs to environment
• Establish data base of outcomes measures
• Facilitate multi center data collection
• Conference on evidence based practice
• Encourage collaborative data bases across multiple institutions
• ISPO fund for supporting research perhaps by a research foundation and donations

Downloadable documents:-

Conference compendium

Conference Presentations:-

Definition & Classification of Cerebral Palsy – J W Gorter gorter@mcmaster.ca    www.canchild.ca
Patterns of Gait – G K Ruder
Medical Management – J W Gorter  gorter@mcmaster.ca    www.canchild.ca
Conclusion & Recommendations relating to orthotic management of the upper limb & lower limb – R J Bowers
Orthotic Biomechanical Principles and Research – B Meadows
CP Population:  Spinal Orthotic Management – B Malas
CP Population:  Future Research in the Field of Orthotic Management – B Malas
Orthotic Research – What is the Future? – G K Ruder
Perspectives from a Physiotherapist – D L Damiano