Pediatric patients with oncologic and hematologic diagnoses who experience newly acquired functional deficits during a hospitalization may benefit from intensive therapies. However, acute medical issues or disease treatment plans may prevent a safe transfer to the inpatient rehabilitation unit. Accordingly, Short-term Pediatric Rehabilitation Intensive Therapy (SPRINT), a two-week inpatient intensive therapy program, was developed for pediatric patients on an acute care service.
To assess functional outcomes of SPRINT participants, adverse events associated with the program, and measures of patients’ fatigue, sadness, nervousness, and pain by parents and patients at the start and end of SPRINT.
Retrospective cohort study.
Hematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant units at regional pediatric tertiary care hospital.
Eighteen pediatric patients (50% female, age 1.9-17.8 years) participated in SPRINT, and 11 parents and 4 children completed questionnaires.
Not applicable.
Functional outcomes of SPRINT participants measured by Caregiver Assistance section of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), adverse events identified on chart review, and inquiry of participants’ symptoms before and after SPRINT with a questionnaire.
Common diagnoses included leukemia and lymphoma (N = 9, 50%) and central nervous system tumor (N = 6, 33%). Deconditioning (N = 18, 100%) and peripheral neuropathy (N = 8, 44.4%) were common rehabilitation diagnoses. Significant gains were found in tasks in self-care and mobility domains of PEDI (all P < 0.05), as well as functional expression in social function domain (P = 0.03). No adverse events related to SPRINT participation were identified. There was no significant difference between pre- and post-SPRINT questionnaire responses.
SPRINT is an alternative model for intensive rehabilitation care delivery. Data suggested that SPRINT participation was safe and resulted in significant gains in mobility, self-care, and functional expression for pediatric patients with hematologic and oncologic diagnoses while receiving acute care. No difference was found in questionnaire responses after SPRINT participation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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