[Directions and complex rehabilitation in children with neural tube defects].

A child with spina bifida is born with a potential disability. These children demand a long treatment and constant care of a specialist team which consists of: a pediatrician, pediatric surgeon, neurologist, nephrologist, specialist in rehabilitation and psychologist. In the treatment of the children with spina bifida, rehabilitating treatment is the basic and main one, which is started in the first days of life. The most difficult and trouble-some problem in the treatment of the children with spina bifida is the dysfunction of urinary bladder and anus sphincters which causes urine and fecal incontinence. These impairments often cause infections of the urinary tract, nephrolithiasis and in the later period, renal failure. The most vital factor influencing the effect of rehabilitation in children with spina bifida, the one which causes a real handicap, is the dysfunction of urinary bladder and anus sphincters, and not paresis or paralysis of the extremities.