Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Senior Consultant Eli Gunnarson, Karolinska Institutet
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Eirik Vikane, University of Bergen
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Anette Ramm-Pettersen, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Lasse Pihlstrøm, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor II Frank Becker, University of Oslo
Summary
This thesis investigates medical complications in children with moderate to severe acquired central nervous system (CNS) injury within pediatric rehabilitation medicine.
The thesis explores what is known from the literature about medical complications after acquired CNS injury in children, how frequently such complications occur during and after inpatient rehabilitation, and what consequences they have for the rehabilitation process and for patients and caregivers after discharge.
The work comprises one scoping review, one questionnaire-based survey, and one prospective cohort study. The survey included children who sustained CNS injury between 2 and 17 years of age and had received inpatient rehabilitation at Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital. The cohort study followed children aged 2-17 years during inpatient rehabilitation.
The findings show that the literature mainly describes single complications in isolation, while comprehensive rehabilitation-oriented studies are scarce. In the patient studies, medical complications were common both during rehabilitation and in the months and years after injury. Frequently reported complications included sleep disturbances, pain, spasticity, constipation, infections, anemia, malnutrition, and overweight. Their occurrence was associated with longer length of stay. Although most complications had limited impact on the rehabilitation process, pain, malnutrition, infections, and spasticity were more often associated with interrupted or prolonged stays, altered rehabilitation goals, and poorer functional prognosis. After discharge, patients and caregivers reported that complications affected daily functioning, participation in leisure activities, and psychological well-being, and were time-consuming to manage.
Overall, the thesis demonstrates that medical complications are common after acquired CNS injury in children and may have important consequences for rehabilitation, long-term functioning, and family life.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.