Physiotherapy in the Medical Rehabilitation of Children with Malignant Tumors

Abstract

Analyzed studies on the use of physical factors in the medical rehabilitation of children with malignant tumors were enrolled from the following electronic databases: Scopus, Web of Science, MedLine, World Health Organization, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group, ScienceDirect, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, PubMed Cancer, elibrary, CyberLeninka. To treat complications that occur in children both during and after chemotherapy/radiotherapy for malignant tumors, physical training, massage, acupuncture, acupressure, electroneurostimulation, low-intensity laser radiation, laser irradiation of blood, laser puncture, magnetolaser therapy, local low-frequency low-intensity magnetotherapy were applied in an independent mode. Complex of artificial and natural medical factors in the rehabilitation of children in the period of remission was studied on the bases of various sanatoriums. Its clinical efficacy was practically assured but precise evidence of safety was not obtained yet. Nevertheless basing on this review, we can declare that the approach to pediatric oncology rehabilitation should be multidisciplinary. On the one hand, the therapy without physiotherapy intervention is absolutely unjustified; on the other hand, the application of various physical factors is also reckless. The physical factors included in the rehabilitation complex should be safe with no negative effect on the course of the underlying disease in children. To obtain such convincing evidence, it is extremely important both to analyze the long-term results of conducted studies (analysis should be performed by rehabilitation physicians together with oncologists who supervised pediatric patients) and to conduct well-organized controlled randomized academic studies on large clinical material.