Anoxic brain injury following near-drowning in children. Rehabilitation outcome: three case reports.

Primary objective: To describe the outcome of near-drowning and rehabilitation contexts for recovery. Methods and procedures: Standardized measures were used to emphasize the functional impact of deficits over the first year post-injury in three children < 2 years. Multimodal contexts for meaningful interplay were early adapted to the three cases. Main outcomes and results: The clinical pathways of recovery are identified. Initially all three cases manifested a generalized dystonia. Case 1 exhibited a good outcome with transient dyskinetic-dystonic syndrome; subsequently Balint's syndrome emerged. In this case, the rehabilitation approach was organized on the pickup of direct perception of task-specific affordances. Cases 2 and 3 had poor outcomes presenting the worsening of torsion dystonia ( status dystonicus) that hindered rehabilitation intervention. Conclusions: The dynamic reaggregation of spatial organization through meaningful interaction in specific ecological contexts is the principal goal of rehabilitation intervention. Status dystonicus represents the worst feature for recovery.