Most of the research summary and guidelines below are focussed on the rehabilitation of patients with low grade gliomas (LGG) located in the posterior fossa. This group of patients will often experience surgery, which is considered a major brain injury. Hence some of the rehabilitation described below will be on brain injury rehabilitation since the focus of that research is on neuroplasticity. Additionally, we will try to extrapolate from other research such as adults with brain tumors, Cerebral Palsey, stroke patients etc. because a lot more data is available for these groups of patients.
This is meant as a guideline for parents that want to complement the prescribed recovery programs such as Physical Therapy (PT), Occupational Therapy (OT), and speech therapy. The guide is meant to be a source of information to bring up with the child's medical team. Please make sure to always get the approval from your team before implementing any of the strategies listed below.
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Cancer can not only have effects on the mobility aspect of gross motor function, but also lasting effects on tiredness. Guidelines for general physical activity in healthy kids: Children and adolescents aged 5–16 years should accumulate at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity per day, including vigorous-intensity aerobic activities that improve bone density and muscle strength.
To combat effects from reduced mobility and fatigue, brief sessions of regular resistance training can increase muscle mass in pediatrics.
Although most research is done on CP patients, some can be transcribed to brain injury and thus brain tumor patients as well. The hypothesis is that treadmill training, for a sufficient period of time, has a potential to produce cerebellum neuroplasticity, and consequently result in an effective permanent postural stability. Additionally, aerobic exercise (biking, running, etc) in general might contribute to better rehabilitation of brain tumor patients.
Meta- analysis on patient with Posterior Fossa Tumor: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7056486/
Study on children with CP: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjem/238/3/238_213/_article/-char/ja/
Study on brain tumor patients: https://journals.lww.com/rehabonc/abstract/2017/10000/effects_of_an_individualized_aerobic_exercise.3.aspx
Study on children with CP: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8009229
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