Diaphragm Pacers in Pediatric Patients with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: a Review and Implications for Inpatient Rehabilitation

Purpose of review Pediatric spinal cord injury (SCI) at C3 level and above results in tetraplegia and profound respiratory insufficiency requiring long-term positive pressure ventilation (PPV) and is associated with significant complications and morbidity. Diaphragm pacing (DP), a form of functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the diaphragm, provides natural negative pressure breathing which can replace or decrease PPV need. There are numerous reported benefits of DP including improved speech, reduced caregiver burden, and decrease in secretions. The purposes of this paper are to review the limited literature on the safety and effectiveness of DP in pediatric SCI and describe collaboration between two unaffiliated, geographically separated institutions to facilitate implantation of DP for children with ventilator-assisted tetraplegia during inpatient rehabilitation. We further describe the process for ventilator weaning/diaphragm conditioning during inpatient rehabilitation.