Rehabilitation of children with brain tumors

Brain tumors are the most common type of solid tumors in childhood. It has only been over the past 20 years that the majority of children with intracranial tumors are surviving. Children who survive their tumors may do so with significant disabilities resulting from the tumor or its treatment, and are presenting a new challenge in pediatric rehabilitation. In this article, we will discuss the epidemiology and characteristics of the major types of brain tumors that occur in children, the multimodality approach to tumor treatment along with the major complications of the interventions that have implications for the quality of survival, the types of deficits in function that occur most commonly in children who survive their tumors, and the team approach to rehabilitation of children with disabilities due to brain tumors.