[Factors relevant to long-term social prognosis of patients with spina bifida]

With the recent advances in medical techniques, many patients with spina bifida have survived to adulthood. We reported here on the present social life and complications in 43 spina bifida cases followed up in the Tochigi Rehabilitation Center. Fourteen of 23 patients (61%) above eighteen years of age were able to achieve an independent social life. Most of these patients could walk with or without crutches and did not have mental retardation. Nine of these fourteen patients (64%) were capable of natural or high pressure urination and only three patients (21%) required the clean intermittent catheterization technique. In school-age patients, all the nine junior and senior high school students and three of the nine primary school students were attending a school for the handicapped. Their independent social life was related not only to the degree of severity of their disability, but also to the aid afforded by the society.