Oral health status in pediatric patients with cerebral palsy fed by oral versus enteral route
Abstract
AIMS
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a chronic, nonprogressive disorder affecting movement, posture, and tone, caused by injuries in the central nervous system during the early stages of life. Patients with CP have swallowing disorders, which make oral feeding difficult and necessitate the use of external feeding devices. The objective of this research was to study the oral health status of pediatric patients affected with CP fed by either oral or enteral route.
METHODS
A cross-sectional observational clinical study of the oral health of two groups of patients with CP, fed either orally or enterally (via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, PEG).
RESULTS
Patients fed by enteral route via PEG presented lower caries scores (DMFT: PEG: 1.09, non-PEG: 2.81) and higher percentages of supragingival dental calculus than the oral feeding group (PEG: 86%, non-PEG: 57.6%).
CONCLUSION
Oral health status differed in pediatric patients with CP fed enterally via PEG and those fed orally. Specific preventive measures in both groups will be required to minimize the risk of complications.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Challenges and opportunities with drug repurposing: finding strategies to find alternative uses of therapeutics
- Challenges in Chagas Disease Drug Development
- T Cell Specificity: A Great Challenge in Chagas Disease
- Benznidazole treatment leads to DNA damage in Trypanosoma cruzi and the persistence of rare widely dispersed non-replicative amastigotes in mice
- Rapid Molecular Detection of Terbinafine-resistant Dermatophytes
- Identifying novel drugs with new modes of action for neglected tropical fungal skin diseases (fungal skinNTDs) using an Open Source Drug discovery approach
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.