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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Intrathecal baclofen for treating spasticity in children with cerebral palsy

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, November 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (87th percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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11 X users
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3 Facebook pages
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2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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72 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
415 Mendeley
Title
Intrathecal baclofen for treating spasticity in children with cerebral palsy
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, November 2015
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd004552.pub2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Monika J Hasnat, James E Rice

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement and posture arising from a non-progressive lesion in the developing brain. Spasticity, a disorder of increased muscle tone, is the most common motor difficulty and is associated with activity limitation to varying degrees in mobility and self care.Oral baclofen, a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist, has been used in oral form to treat spasticity for some time, but it has a variable effect on spasticity and the dose is limited by the unwanted effect of excessive sedation. Intrathecal baclofen produces higher local concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid at a fraction of the equivalent oral dose and avoids this excessive sedation. To determine whether intrathecal baclofen is an effective treatment for spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. We searched the CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases, handsearched recent conference proceedings, and communicated with researchers in the field and pharmaceutical and drug delivery system companies. We included studies which compared the effect of intrathecal baclofen treatment on spasticity, gross motor function or other areas of function with controls. Two authors selected studies, two authors extracted data and two authors assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Six studies met the inclusion criteria. The data obtained were unsuitable for the conduct of a meta-analysis; we have completed a qualitative summary.All studies were found to have high or unclear risk of bias in some aspects of their methodology.Five of the six studies reported data collected in the randomised controlled phase of the study. A sixth study did not report sufficient results to determine the effect of intrathecal baclofen versus placebo. Of these five studies, four were conducted using lumbar puncture or other short-term means of delivering intrathecal baclofen. One study assessed the effectiveness of implantable intrathecal baclofen pumps over six months.The four short-term studies demonstrated that intrathecal baclofen therapy reduces spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. However, two of these studies utilised inappropriate techniques for statistical analysis of results. The single longer-term study demonstrated minimal reduction in spasticity with the use of intrathecal baclofen therapy.One of the short-term studies and the longer term study showed improvement in comfort and ease of care. The longer term study found a small improvement in gross motor function and also in some domains of health-related quality of life.Some caution is required in interpreting the findings of the all the studies in the review due to methodological issues. In particular, there was a high risk of bias in the methodology of the longer term study due to the lack of placebo use in the control group and the absence of blinding to the intervention after randomisation for both participants and investigators. There is some limited short-term evidence that intrathecal baclofen is an effective therapy for reducing spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. The effect of intrathecal baclofen on long-term spasticity outcomes is less certain.The validity of the evidence for the effectiveness of intrathecal baclofen in treating spasticity in children with cerebral palsy from the studies in the review is constrained by the small sample sizes of the studies and methodological issues in some studies.Spasticity is a impairment in the domain of body structure and function. Consideration must also be given to the broader context in determining whether intrathecal baclofen therapy is effective. The aim of therapy may be, for example, to improve gross motor function, to increase participation at a social role level, to improve comfort, to improve the ease of care by others or to improve the overall quality of life of the individual. Intrathecal baclofen may improve gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy, but more reliable evidence is needed to determine this.There is some evidence that intrathecal baclofen improves ease of care and the comfort and quality of life of the individuals receiving it, but again small sample sizes and methodological issues in the studies mean that these results should be interpreted with caution.Further evidence of the effectiveness of intrathecal baclofen for treating spasticity, increasing gross motor function and improving comfort, ease of care and quality of life is needed from other investigators in order to validate these results.The short duration of the controlled studies included in this review did not allow for the exploration of questions regarding whether the subsequent need for orthopaedic surgery in children receiving intrathecal baclofen therapy is altered, or the safety and the economic implications of intrathecal baclofen treatment when long-term therapy is administered via an implanted device. Controlled studies are not the most appropriate study design to address these questions, cohort studies may be more appropriate.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 11 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 415 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
India 1 <1%
Denmark 1 <1%
Unknown 412 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 70 17%
Student > Bachelor 50 12%
Researcher 33 8%
Student > Postgraduate 29 7%
Other 28 7%
Other 85 20%
Unknown 120 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 137 33%
Nursing and Health Professions 49 12%
Sports and Recreations 12 3%
Neuroscience 12 3%
Psychology 11 3%
Other 54 13%
Unknown 140 34%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 February 2021.
All research outputs
#2,757,647
of 25,457,858 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#5,386
of 11,842 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#37,223
of 292,464 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#160
of 290 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,858 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,842 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 56% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 292,464 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 290 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.