Guest guest Posted December 30, 2004 Report Share Posted December 30, 2004 Hi Rick The worst that I think could be said about banding is that for milder cases it may be unnecessary, or simply achieve the same result in a quicker time frame. The best is that is prevents continuing plagio as the child gets older. On this basis, it seems to me that it does not have really major disadvantages (there are some minor ones such as sweating), so it may be a low-risk option worth taking! For more severe cases, I personally don' t think there is much debate about the benefits of a helmet (they would probably be the remaining 3 or 12% depending which version of the analysis you prefer to go with) Funnily enough, although I am sceptical about industry sponsored and produced research, I still recommend NRT myself as a clinician, having studied as much as I can in my area. Although you may not want to accept the recommendation of a company about the use of their own products, their products may yet be very effective! Good luck with it all Hannah (mum to Lucia, London UK) Cranio grad > > > > > From: " hannah_farrimond " <hannah_farrimond@y...> > > Date: 2004/12/30 Thu AM 09:46:33 EST > > Plagiocephaly > > Subject: Re: Comforting Article > > > > >Hi Rick > > >One of the problems is in this area that most of the work > >published in peer-reviewed journals nevertheless represents >a > >vested interest, as few genuinely neutral academic > >establishments actually make helmets themselves, therefore > >most of the research into the effectiveness of helmets is > >published by the orthotics industry. For example, the last >paper > >in the recent journal Prosthetics and Orthotics you have >been > >discussing with Christie on the way forward for plagio is >written > >by Tim Littlefield of Cranial Technologies. Now, he is >probably an > >expert in the field having worked in this area for so long, >but he > >cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be said to be a >neutral > >academic and his recommendations will clearly be pro-band as > >well pro-repo and education. > > Excellent points, Hannah. Working in an academic medical center, I'm well aware of these sorts of problems. It's very similar to pharmaceutical research when drug companies fund research on their own medications and have significant input into the content of manuscripts eventually submitted for publication. I've always had scientific " issues " with that approach. I don't think the FDA in the U.S. should allow it, but that's another issue. > > > >However, up until now I think the standard of research >papers is > >poor, given their origins. > > One of the other articles from the October issue of the journal of prosthetics and orthotics reviewed and graded all of the outcome research in this area based on scientific rigor. The majority of the studies were graded " C " with a smattering of " B " grades. There was nothing higher than a " B. " > > >This might seem unfair to those > >beavering away within orthotics companies doing very >excellent > >research, but personally I would always be sceptical about > >industry produced research full stop, whether it be plagio >studies > >produced by orthotic companies or, in my area, NRT or Zyban > >studies produced by pharmaceutical companies. > > Exactly. > > >I haven' t read the posts about your decisions about your >son yet, > >so I hope you are working your way successfully through this > >minefield! > > > I'm still in the obsessive-compulsive information gathering phase. Unfortunately - and as you indicated in a previous post - I'm quickly learning that I'm simply not going to find good scientific evidence to make the kind of decision I would feel comfortable with one way or the other. That being the case, I'll most likely wait another month or two at the most, and then request a helmet from the plastic surgeon if I'm not happy with his head shape at that time. It seems to me if I have to " gamble " , getting a helmet might be a safer gamble. It sounds like parents of children 10 years from now will have much more information available to them to make a decision they are comfortable with. > > Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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