Journal
JOURNAL OF CHILD NEUROLOGY
Volume 22, Issue 8, Pages 974-978Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0883073807305670
Keywords
spinal muscular atrophy; restrictive lung disease
Categories
Funding
- NINDS NIH HHS [R01 NS039327-05] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Spinal muscular atrophy is an incurable disease with a frequency of 8 per 100000 live births. The disease gene, survival motor neuron I (SMN1), was identified with a disease modifying gene, SMN2. There is a high mortality rate in infancy and severe morbidity in childhood. Management depends on treating or preventing complications of weakness and maintaining quality of life. Weakness may affect several organ systems: respiratory, due to restrictive lung disease; gastrointestinal, in terms of dysphagia and constipation; and orthopedic, with progressive deformities. This review focuses on management of restrictive lung disease, the most common and most serious complication. Three areas of recent development are noninvasive ventilation using new technology, new awareness of the importance of identifying sleep-disordered breathing, and a new multidisciplinary approach to standard of care. Noninvasive ventilation and improved airway clearance are helpful for preoperative and postoperative management. Standard of care requires a multidisciplinary approach.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available