Turkish Team from Acibadem Altunizade Hospital Held Free Consultations for Spastic Children at Karin Dom

The team of renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Prof. Memet Ozek from Istanbul, Turkey – Dr. Enis Shaban, movement and gait analysis specialist and two physiotherapists examined and consulted over 40 spastic children and their families free of charge during a two-day visit at Karin Dom.

The visit of Turkish specialists is a result of Karin Dom’s efforts to develop a partnership network with universities, hospitals and therapy centers that would improve the quality of live of children with special needs. Acibadem Altunizade Hospital is known for early diagnosis, surgical treatment and early postoperative rehabilitation of children with spasticity, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, delayed motor development, traumas, syndromes, hereditary spastic paraparesis, motor disorders.

Turkish colleagues shared a different multidisciplinary approach to the effective treatment – changing the focus of professionals working with children with spasticity:

• a greater improvement in children’s functional skills can be achieved by first addressing the problem of muscle spasticity before resorting to orthopedic surgery;

• spasticity can be favorably affected only if, after surgery, the family and the physical therapist work actively together;

• The choice of treatment for spasticity is preceded by an assessment made by a multidisciplinary team that takes into account the child’s age (preferably 2-6 years), diagnosis, imaging, functional abilities, previous operations and parents’ expectations.

The development of Karin Dom’s partnership network is part of Karin Dom’s project with The Velux Foundation  and aims to share knowledge and experience. As a result of the visit, we built valuable contacts and planned next steps for cooperation. At the end of the visit, we had ideas for cooperation in support of children and training of specialists.