For the spina bifida of children the care of adults

For the spina bifida of children the care of adults

SPIDER PLUG

At the City of Health and Science in Turin, the first integrated center to accompany children with spina bifida from the doctor of adults

At the City of Health and Science in Turin, the first integrated center to accompany children with spina bifida from the doctor of adults

The difficult transition from pediatric care to adult care for inborn or acquired neurological diseases was resolved at the Città della Salute in Turin with the launch of the "Transitional care" at the first bipolar spina bifida center inaugurated last October at the CTO of Turin. According to this new service, the specialists of the adult will move to the pediatric center of spina bifida of Regina Margherita hospital, which is part of the same company, to assist in collaboration with pediatricians children in the age group 12-14 years , which refer to the clinic for this pathology. Likewise, pediatricians will commute with the adult center to stay close to the 14-year-olds who have gone to care in the large department at the CTO. "In this way - explains Professor Roberto Carone, director of unipolar spinal unit - the transition from one to another department, even in different hospitals, will not be traumatic for children who tend to want to stay in the pediatric wards where they feel more at home, because they are well looked after and pampered. But with our system they will find in the adult ward an environment that is more suitable for them and with the same clinical treatment ".

THE REASONS - The spina bifida, a congenital malformation of the spinal cord, characterized by the incomplete closure of the spinal canal with abnormal development of the nervous tissue, shows an incidence in Italy of about 1 pregnancy every 1,300. It involves varying degrees of neurological and motor disability and at the same time inevitably causes serious dysfunctions of the urinary, intestinal and genito-sexual apparatus. In the past years, when the attention towards this disease was lower, mortality was decidedly high and occurred at a young age, mainly due to serious urinary complications. Today, that the attention towards this pathology has determined a survival of the sufferers superimposable to the healthy population, interesting



therefore in a transversal way the pediatric and adult age, it was considered necessary to support the pediatric center, already existing at the Regina Margherita hospital, a new adult center, located at the Neuro-Urology of the Unipolar Spinal Unit of the CTO hospital in Turin. The project involved the establishment of a so-called Transitional Care activity, aimed at accompanying patients in the transition phase from the pediatric to adolescent / adult age, without incurring additional costs.

THE STRUCTURE - The Center of Regina Margherita employs about 80 children, while in the adult one more than one hundred patients are followed. The team of the two Centers consists of a multi-specialized and multi-professional team, in which all the professionals that these patients may need operate. In particular, the new CTO Adult Center foresees the direct involvement of 5 urologists, with particular expertise in neuro-urology, 5 nurses, two physiotherapists and a psychologist. This team is assisted by consultants who are able to provide multispecialistic assistance that this pathology involves (orthopedists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, gynecologists, physiatrists, ophthalmologists, coloproctologists, social workers).