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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN NEUROREHABILITATION
oleh: Shafaq Altaf
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | Rand Publications 2019-03-01 |
Deskripsi
Cochlear implants (CI) are electronic devices that are surgically implanted in children with profound hearing loss to enable them experience sensation of sound. U.S was the first to approve CI surgeries for children in 1990 and the minimum age was lowered to 12 months by U.S Food and Drug Administration by 2002.1 Growing numbers of evidence has demonstrated positive outcomes of CI in language and communication by improving children’s speech perception and speech production.2 Outcomes of CI are neither instant nor irrefutably assured and demands continuous effortful habilitation process to prove this surgery a wise decision.3,4 Evidence shows great variability in outcomes following CI which indicates that children may continue to show hearing and communication problems.5 Long-term habilitation processes of CI and continued exposure to difficulties generate many stressors to parents along with challenges to parental role. Furthermore, to ensure success of CI, parents play a key role by complying with whole rehabilitation process. Therefore any factor that can cause stress for parents and destroys their mental health, can affect child’s progress. Literature reveals that psychological distress is more experienced among parents of children with CI not only in comparison to parents of normal hearing children6 but also do parents of deaf and conventional hearing aid users.7 In Pakistan CI programme began in 2000 and at that time due to financial constraints only few patients were able to afford this and faced many difficulties in its long term rehabilitation process.8 Currently many hospitals in liaison with international companies are offering CI surgeries with habilitation services. Some of those hospitals are Dow University of Health Sciences Karachi, Capital Development hospital Islamabad, Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi, Bahria International Hospital Lahore and Central park hospital Lahore. Many schemes also provide free cochlear implant surgery services with one year fund for habilitation services i.e. audiological services and speech therapies. It is commendable that services to patients of CI in Pakistan are growing at exponential rate from selection of CI candidate to habilitation process post-surgery, but parallel to that parents’ increasing stress level affecting their psychosocial life cannot be ignored. It has been observed that at first hand CI poses great financial burden that can continue to upheaval at any stage of life even after bearing expense of costly CI surgery, when any piece of device gets damaged or need repair. Even if insurance is sought it requires depositing minimum eighty thousand rupees per year that is only affordable for high economic strata. Services of CI surgeries are only offered in few big cities and for every mapping and follow up. Patients from far-flung areas are required to travel long distances and for life long they become dependent on their CI panel and/or company no matter how many difficulties, bad attitude and unprofessional habilitation services they witness and face. Parents victimhood shout out that many public and private sector institutes claim that they provide Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) but in actual these institutes are filled with trainees who themselves do not know the exact approach and trains child on total communication approach that make child dependent on gestures, lip reading and loud voice from messenger that overall affects typical milestones of listening development. Such truths get exposed when child was assessed by some expert speech therapist. Parents also reported that at times remarks of audiologist get stressful when within few months of implant they compare their child with some other child and states that the other one has got much verbal as compared to your child or why he/she hasn’t started speaking yet. In opinion of parents who have gone through this long journey, many audiologists except few don’t seem to be aware of typical listening milestones. Many parents reported that speech therapy is a long-term process which itself carries financial load but even it is taken, you can never be assured that therapist is following standardized steps or not. Some parents reported that we immediately got happy when our child started uttering many word within few therapy sessions soon after It has been a few decades since neurological rehabilitation is recognized as a formal technique for therapeutic treatment of stroke patients or individuals suffering disabilities following spinal cord injuries. Despite the nervous system having a plasticity mechanism that facilitates spontaneous recovery to some extent, it is essential for most patients to receive specialized treatment protocol, to restore their motor function, including physical therapy and occupational therapy. More recently, experts of neurological rehabilitation have inculcated specialized therapies making use of computer and electronic devices to positively influence cortical excitability of damaged parts of cerebral hemispheres in order to improve neuroplasticity.1 The advancements aim to take advantage of the functionally preserved neuromuscular structures in compensating for the functions of the damaged areas as well as restoring function of the affected brain tissue; something for which the use of technology was not seen being implemented around two decades back.1, 2 While traditional approach to neuro-rehabilitation would focus on preventing worsening of a functional limitation through exercises such as passive range of motion and stretching,2 a better understanding of neuroplasticity has swung the rehabilitation pendulum in favor of use of several electrotherapeutic devices including transcranial magnetic stimulation modality, robot for limb training, robotic lower extremity orthoses and brain-computer interfaces which offer benefits for patients with neuronal injury.1 Non-invasive brain stimulation facilitates perceptual learning as well motor and cognitive performance in case of brain lesions.2 In order to ensure adherence to various therapies in the process of rehabilitation, interactive treatment strategies are being developed. These include the application of virtual and augmented reality systems which not only motivate the patient but make the repetitive exercise interesting in a controlled environment.3, 4 This approach has challenged the traditional paradigm by the use of biosensors as biofeedback tools to enlighten the patients about internal activities by them visualizing their muscle activity eventually helping them control their bodies better by knowing which muscles to contract to produce the correct movement.5 A proven successful mode of rehabilitation includes virtual reality (VR) technology, which is practical to use at homes, however, requires professional input when it comes to software development and application. Along with ensuring safety and effectiveness, new strategies are being developed which would allow clinicians who do not hold programming expertise to create game-based VR tasks and make further advancements in the field of neurological rehabilitation.6 Amongst the many causes of disability including trauma and musculoskeletal degenerative changes, nervous system disorders are most prevalent resulting in physical, cognitive, linguistic and behavioral issues all at the same time. According to a report by World Health Organization in year 2006, up to 1 billion people are suffering from neurological disorders worldwide constituting around 6% of the global burden of disease and is only escalating since then. Lower-income countries are significantly more affected than high-income countries as 80% disability- stricken individuals live in low-income countries.7 Considering rehabilitation, particularly the neurological aspect, as being relatively young medical specialty, improvement have been made in the years especially in the developed world with better quality rehabilitation services being offered by multidisciplinary teams consisting of highly trained physicians and physical therapists along with supporting staff.8 We are gradually, however, surely moving in the direction of figuring out new and effective approaches to neurorehabilitation by not only compensating for disabilities following neurological injuries but trying to reduce T Rehabili. J. Volume 03, Issue 02 2019 106 impairments by restoring neuronal structure and function.2 The technological advancements made in the developing countries are slow paced; however, keeping in mind the available resources, the responsibility lies with the clinicians to select and provide a comprehensive rehabilitation program which cost-efficient and easy to implement in the long run 9. In a nutshell, a truly effective neuro-rehabilitative program would focus on strategies to fully enable an individual to carry out activities of daily life, increase mobility, improve the ability to function independently and be an integral part of society.