Trunk and leg growth in children with paraplegia caused by spinal cord injury.

After a survey of the bibliography on the subject of clinical and experimental data on retarded growth in children affected by lesions of the peripheral nervous system, the authors present a semi-longitudinal analysis of the anthropometric values obtained by spinal cord section in the case of young paraplegics. By this means, they demonstrate an average growth defect of the order of two standard deviations which only affects the body distal to the neurological lesion in cervical or dorsal injuries. The lower the level of the cord lesion and the earlier the paralysis the greater the growth defects.