Evaluation of the Motor Activity, Cardiopulmonary Performance Capacity and Quality of Life in Patients Born With a Congenital Abdominal Wall Defect

Summary

The two most common congenital abdominal wall defects (AWD) are gastroschisis and omphalocele. Prenatal detection is often possible and the defects are differentiated by the presence or absence of a sac around the eviscerated organs. A omphalocele occurs in 0.6-4.8 in 10,000 live births compared to 4.5 in 10,000 live births with gastroschisis. In the last years a rising incidence of gastroschisis has been shown worldwide.

Both forms of AWDs necessitate early surgical intervention, mostly in one or two stages, and support at an intensive care unit in the first days of life. Additionally, patients need parenteral feeding in the first weeks of life. The outcome depends on the size of the defect and on the associated malformations.

The literature about long-term outcome of these malformations is scarce. Some publications have reported long-term complications like redo-surgical procedures because of fascial gaps or umbilical or incisional hernias. Furthermore, stool irregularities, abdominal pain and several admission to the hospital due to ileus or sub-ileus have been described. Additionally, half of the patients are unsatisfied with the cosmetic result.

Some other studies have shown that children born with an AWD have the same quality of life (QoL) compared with the healthy community.

Nevertheless, patients with AWDs need a standardized, structured and multimodal long-time follow-up program to be able to detect any problems early and give advice to understand their illness in order to achieve the same QoL as healthy children.

Therefore, the aim of this dissertation will be:

* to prospectively assess the motor activity, cardiopulmonary performance capacity and QoL of patients treated with AWDs in our Department
* to suggest a new standardized follow-up protocol for patients born with an AWD

Conditions

• Abdominal Wall Defect

Interventions

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

CombynTM Function & Spaces ECG

Multi-frequency impedance measurement to assess the muscle and fat mass

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Blood Taking

Sampling of blood of the finger pad to assess liver function

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Spiroergometry

Spiroergometry to assess cardiopulmonary capacity. The intensity will be raised in steps until total exhaustion. In between each step we will take blood of the ear lobe to determine the lactate level

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Dordel Koch Test (DKT)

Dordel Koch Test (DKT) to evaluate the motor activity. The DKT is a heterogeneous test battery for children and adolescents and consists of seven parts: lateral jumping, sit and reach, situps, long stand jump, one-legged stand, push-ups and 6-min-run

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Ultrasound

Ultrasound for abdominal wall muscles

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Stance and gait analyses

Stance and gait analyses for measuring the core stability

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Medical University of Graz

  lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-10-05

Primary Completion

2021-02-28

Completion

2023-05-31

Countries

• Austria

Study Locations