Paediatric Neurological Conditions Seen at the Physiotherapy Department of Federal Medical Centre, Ido Ekiti, Nigeria: A Five Year Review

Paediatric neurological conditions constitute a major cause of disability in childhood. However there seems to be an apparent dearth of published works on the patterns of neurological conditions seen in Nigerian physiotherapy clinics of rural locations. This study aimed at describing the spectrum of neurological conditions among Nigerian children presenting at the outpatient Paediatric Physiotherapy Clinic of the Federal Medical Centre, Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria between January, 2006 and December, 2010. A retrospective case chart review of paediatric neurological cases seen within the study period was done. Data gleaned included: age, gender, source of referral, patient’s place of domicile and specific diagnosis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, range and percentages, and the frequency distributions of the various data were calculated and presented in tables. A total number of 124 (72.9 % of total 170 paediatric patients seen) children presented with neurological conditions with mean age 35.6± 37.5 months and a 1.3:1.0 male to female ratio. Cerebral palsy (43.6 %) in particular the spastic quadriplegia type accounted for majority of cases seen. Traumatic sciatic nerve palsy (29 %) was the second most common condition. Most of the patients (64.5 %) were referred from the Paediatric Outpatient Department of the same hospital with 56.5 % domiciled outside the hospital location but within Ekiti State. Cerebral palsy and traumatic sciatic nerve palsy are major health concerns among children in this environment.