[Longitudinal evaluation of functional neurodevelopmental diagnosis according to the Munich Method in preterm...

The natural acquisition of motor skills during childhood can be affected by a gestational age of less than 40 weeks. Early detection favors timely management and prevention of sequelae, therefore, having a reliable tool for evaluating motor development in preterm children is necessary. A useful tool for this purpose is the Munich functional developmental diagnosis, which evaluates development ontogeny during the first year of life in children. This paper aims at analyzing the correlation between the Munich functional developmental diagnosis and the clinical assessment to determine the usefulness of such method in preterm patients.

Descriptive and retrospective study, in which the clinical records of 165 children with corrected age between 0 and 12 months of age and a history of gestational age of less than 40 weeks were evaluated. The method was used with all the children during a follow-up visit at Instituto Materno Infantil in Bogotá, between 2008 and 2011.

A high correlation between corrected age and motor age obtained was found according to the Munich functional developmental diagnosis method.

The high correlation between each milestone evaluated and the corrected age of preterm infants makes the Munich method useful for the evaluation of motor development since this is a short test, easy to apply.