Divulgant la Recerca Internacional

El passat 16 de setembre va tenir lloc a Liverpool la primera Conferència Internacional en Dany Cerebral Adquirit en Pediatria  http://www.internationalbrain program. on l'equip de EpsiaDex de Pediatria de Dexeus va assisstir-hi amb la representació de Marta Sanz Palau. La neuropsicòloga del nostre equip Epsia Dex va presentar el seu projecte de recerca en nens que han patit un Traumatime Cranioencefàlic. La seva investigació conclou, que quan el nen és més petit alhora de l'impacte de la lesió i aquesta és més severa, les seqüeles neuropsicològiques i específicament en funcions executives són més evidents. 

L'impacte del nivell socioeconòmic i cultural dels pares influeix directament en una millor recuperació cognitiva després d'un traumatisme cranioencefàlic. Aquests resultats posen de manifest la teoria de la vulnerabilitat temprana (en edats més precoces del desenvolupament) i la teoria del Doble Perill (Escalona, 2004), és a dir, la influència de diversos factors de risc pel desenvolupament de seqüeles a llarg plaç com a models més robustos científicament.

Executive Functions and Behavioral Outcome of Children with Moderate to Severe TBI in a Spanish Pediatric Sample

Marta Sanz-Palau ¹, Anna López-Sala¹, Laura Callejón-Poo², Andrea Palacio-Navarro¹, Marc Turón¹, Cristina Boix¹, Anna Sans¹, Pilar Póo¹, Roser Colomé^1
1Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, ²Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Departament de Psicologia, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

OBJECTIVES: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a common cause of death and disability in children. From an early vulnerability perspective, recent research findings suggest that early brain injury has worse consequences and a greater risk of causing disruption during neurodevelopment. The aim of this paper is to analyze the profile of executive functions (EF) and behavior and to examine the association between age at TBI and socioeconomic status (SES) on a neuropsychological profile.

METHODS: Participants and Methods: We assessed executive functions and behavior in 71 participants aged 6 to 16 years with moderate to severe TBI and compared findings to normative data using Student's t-test. We divided the sample into 4 groups based on age at injury (infancy stage: aged 0-3 years; preschool stage: aged 4-6 years; early school stage: aged 7-9 years; late school stage: aged ≥10 years) in order to explore the impact of age at injury and TBI severity on EF performance.

RESULTS: In comparison to normative data, analysis showed that the sample in this prospective study had significant differences in EF measures. Comparisons across age at injury groups showed significant differences in the infancy group and the preschool group.

CONCLUSIONS: Children with TBI are at an increased risk for impairment across all aspects of EF. Children sustaining TBI in infancy and preschool stages have greater vulnerability and global effects in some aspects of EF and behavior. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the sequelae of TBI in children which in turn helps design rehabilitation plans and adaptations to functional life.

Keywords: Traumatic Brain Injury, Executive Functions, Pediatric Brain Injury, Predictors, Outcomes, Behavior, Neuropsychology