International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Consultant to the Paley Orthopedic and Spine Institute at St. Mary’s Medical Center, West Palm Beach, FL, USA,Consultant to Children’s Medical Services for the State of Florida,District 9, USA

Publications

• Research Article   
  Cerebral Palsy Life Expectancy: Discrepancies between Literature and Community Data
  Author(s): Craig H. Lichtblau*
  
  Cerebral palsy patients and their families need to predict patients’ length of survival for emotional, medical, and financial planning reasons. Providing these estimations is wrought with challenges, some of which are specific to the significant variations in survival that are observed amongst this group of patients. The statistical models that are used to assess life expectancy are plagued by mathematical limitations, faulty assumptions, and the exclusion of factors that are critical to prognosis. In this commentary, we provide evidence that the medical community generally underestimates life expectancy in cerebral palsy. With medical innovations extending lives, some of the literature on life expectancy is outdated, but old data does not explain the extent of the discrepancies we see between what we observe in our communities and what is espoused in the l.. View More»
  DOI: 10.35248/2329-9096.21.9.606

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