Intrathecal administration: Difference between revisions

Often reserved for [[spastic]] [[cerebral palsy]], intrathecally-administered [[baclofen]] is done through an [[intrathecal pump]] implanted just below the skin of the stomachabdomen, (or behind the chest wall, depending on the surgeon implanting the device, and patient preferences), with a tube (called the 'catheter') connected directly to the base of the spine, where it bathes the spinal cord using a dose about one thousand times smaller than that required by orally-administered baclofen. Intrathecal baclofen also carries none of the side effects, such as sleepiness, that typically occur with oral baclofen. However, intrathecal baclofen pumps carry serious clinical risks, such as infection or a possibly fatal sudden malfunction, that oral baclofen does not.