Launched, in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Ca ‘Foncello hospital in Treviso, led by Dr. Paola Lago, an early neuro-rehabilitation project for the newborn at neuro-evolutionary risk, thanks to the collaboration with the Department of Rehabilitation hospital territory, directed by Dr. Marco Gugelmetto.
The project, currently in an experimental phase, aims to promote increasingly effective and innovative treatment paths aimed at newborns who, due to pre or post perinatal damaging factors, have a greater chance of presenting neurological problems.
It is an “early intervention” program based on the establishment of a multi-professional team composed of neonatologists, nurses and socio-health workers, supported daily by neuro-rehabilitation professionals, such as the physiotherapist and speech therapist, who share in synergy the individualized intervention plans, with the early involvement of the family of the newborn.
Physiotherapy in neonatal intensive care at Ca ‘Foncello
«The inclusion of a physiotherapist expert in neurodevelopment in our team – underlines Dr. Lago – allows us to implement early interventions with young patients, in order to allow them to achieve better motor and development skills. Early rehabilitation treatment allows the newborn to develop its potential and the family to take an active role in assisting and stimulating the child, from the earliest stages of his life ».
The program is aimed at all full-term and preterm infants at risk of neurological outcomes or with delays in the acquisition of nutritional autonomy, right from hospitalization in an intensive setting, in order to obtain the maximum possible enabling results.
“Conditions such as pre and post-term birth, perinatal asphyxia, low birth weight, cerebral hemorrhages, perinatal infections, genetic and congenital surgical diseases, constitute risk factors for the newborn for psychomotor development – recalls Lago – approximately 25-30% of infants at risk and admitted to NICU present neuromotor disorders in childhoodsuch as delays in the acquisition of neuromotor stages, infantile cerebral palsy, problems in behavioral, mental and affective-relational development.
Thanks to this type of early multidisciplinary specialist rehabilitation interventions, newborns hospitalized in NICU have the opportunity to be taken care of, right from hospitalization, which sometimes lasts months, to obtain the best possible performance, limiting the outcomes at a distance and consequently improving the quality of life of the newborn and his family. Furthermore, support for parents, who are immediately involved in rehabilitation interventions, is of great importance in order to improve their ability to take care of their child, even when separation at birth and prolonged hospitalization interfere with development. of a physiological parenting “.