Pediatric spasticity in Brazil: insights from a neurosurgical referral center.

Authors

Renato Fedatto Beraldo, Gisele Souza da Silva, Luana Rahal Cardoso Cenatti, Mayara Helena Martins Dondalski, Lúcio Ricieri Perotti, Leonardo Almeida Frizon, Bianca Castellani Scarcelli Segura, Bruno Liebl

Published in

Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery. Volume 42. Issue 1. Oct 02, 2026. Epub Oct 02, 2026.

Abstract

To characterize pediatric spasticity in a Brazilian tertiary center and identify functional demand for neurosurgical interventions.
Retrospective, cross-sectional study of 161 patients. Functional status was assessed using GMFCS and FMS scales.
Cerebral palsy (CP) predominated (75.3%), showing high functional severity (43.6% GMFCS V). Median age at referral was 8.5 years. Dystonia was present in 41.1% of the spasticity subgroup. Functional severity did not correlate with age groups (p = 0.266).
Late referral (median age 8.5 years) contributes to progressive musculoskeletal complications despite stable neurological lesions. Systematic use of GMFCS and FMS provides a reproducible screening tool for surgical candidacy in resource-limited settings. The high prevalence of dystonia (41.1%), characterizing a late-stage mixed hypertonia profile due to delayed referrals, highlights the need for expanded neuromodulation access in public healthcare systems.

PMID:
42827136
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.