SCI rehab in France?

[EricWishart]

Does anybody have experience of rehabilitation in France?
I have heard that the university hospital at Garches - l'Hopital Raymond Poincarre - is the top facility but there is nothing on the internet (even in French) which explains their techniques and there does not seem to be any very active forums in France about spinal cord injury>
thanks, Eric Wishart

[Wise Young]

Originally Posted by EricWishart

Does anybody have experience of rehabilitation in France?
I have heard that the university hospital at Garches - l'Hopital Raymond Poincarre - is the top facility but there is nothing on the internet (even in French) which explains their techniques and there does not seem to be any very active forums in France about spinal cord injury>
thanks, Eric Wishart

Hi, Eric. Let me get this started so, to encourage other people to answer. I did a search of publications from France from groups that have published about spinal cord rehabilitation. This is only the beginning and a determined person should be able to get a list of the top rehabilitation centers in France.

According to a paper published by Albert, et al. in 2005 [1], there are 380 centres in France that may treat people with SCI. Of these, 275 centers responded and 148 declared that they treat SCI people on a regular or occasional basis. A survey of the remaining 105 non-responding units suggests that about 10% take care of people with SCI, suggesting that 150-160 rehabilitation units in France take care of people with SCI. Based on the number of patients received by 131 rehabilitation units in 2000, Albert, et al. concluded that there is an annual incidence of 19.4 SCI persons per million inhabitants of France or about 934 new cases per year. By comparison, by the way, the U.S. has about 35 new cases per million per year and China has about 60 new cases per million per year. So, it seems that France does have a quite a few rehabilitation units but they seem to be scattered across many hospitals.

Apparently, there are two organizations in France that are dedicated to rehabilitation, i.e. the French Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Society (SOFMER) and the French Federation of PRM (FEDMER). Their members meet regularly at at the Congress of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. The 27th SOFMER congress will be held in Toulouse (France) from the 18-20 of October 2012. While the Congress encompasses all of rehabilitation, I imagine that you will be able to meet a majority of the most active rehabilitation doctors who take care of people with SCI by attending that meeting http://www.atout-org.com/sofmer2012/!en

Finally, I attach a list of 120 abstracts that I found on Pubmed containing the words "spinal cord injury", "rehabilitation", and "rehabilitation". I hope that this is helpful and serves as an illustration to other people as to how to find information of this type on internet.

Wise.

References

1. Albert T and Ravaud JF (2005). Rehabilitation of spinal cord injury in France: a nationwide multicentre study of incidence and regional disparities. Spinal Cord 43: 357-65. Centre de Medecine Physique et de Readaptation de Coubert, 77257 Brie Comte Robert, France. STUDY DESIGN: Multicentre retrospective 1-year survey during 2000. OBJECTIVES: To describe the network of physical medicine and rehabilitation units in France that care for people with traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI), and secondly, to evaluate the incidence of SCI persons who have postinjury rehabilitation care. SETTING: Every rehabilitation unit involved in rehabilitation of SCI patients in metropolitan France. METHODS: During the first phase of the survey, a questionnaire was used to list the rehabilitation units that treat SCI people among a total of 380 centres. An additional survey was then carried out on a sample of 30 units that did not answer this questionnaire. In the second phase, the units involved were asked about the number of SCI patients received for a first rehabilitation stay during the year 2000 and their demographic and clinical characteristics. The incidence was calculated on the basis of the population census in metropolitan France aged 15 years, above. RESULTS: Of the 275 respondent units, 148 declared that they treat SCI people on a regular or occasional basis. The survey on the sample of 30 randomly selected nonrespondents enabled us to estimate that 10% of the 105 nonrespondent units were concerned. Among the 148 units contributing to the study, 131 identified all the SCI patients received during the year 2000. After a series of adjustments, an extrapolation for all of metropolitan France leads to an annual incidence of 19.4 SCI persons per million inhabitants, or 934 new cases per year. CONCLUSION: This is the first nationwide survey aiming to estimate the incidence of SCI patients in France. The finding is based on the incidence of SCI persons treated in rehabilitation units. It therefore concerns the incidence of patients who will remain severely disabled.

[SCI-Nurse]

Unfortunately, although CARF does accredit rehabilitation programs in many European countries, to date none are in France. You can find the countries which do have such centers here: http://www.carf.org/advancedProviderSearch.aspx

I did find this listing on the Miami Project webpage. It would be a place to start:

• Le Centre de l’Arche, Centre Régional Spécialisé
• Centre de Réadaptation de Mulhouse (ARFP)
• Centre de Rééducation et de Réadaptation, Spécialisé pour Paraplégiques et Tétraplégiques Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Médecine Physique et Réadaptation
• Centre mutualiste de rééducation et de réadaptation fonctionnelles de Kerpape
• Clinique de Verdaich
• Institut Garches, Hôpital Raymond Poincaré

I don't speak French, so can't help you with the information on these websites. Do you?? Just wondering why you are looking specifically at France as a location for a rehabilitation program from Hong Kong?

(KLD)