Benefits of Intrahospital Exercise Program in Pediatric HSCT

Phoenix Children's Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Deconditioning; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant; Pediatric Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Exercise regimen

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06692478

16-127

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized control study examines the effect of an intrahospital exercise regimen on the physical deconditioning that occurs due to hematopoietic stem cell transplant in the pediatric population.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 4 to 21 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Patients ages 4-21 years of age who present for hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
2. Karnofsky (if ≥16 years) or Lansky (if <16 years) score >60 at enrollment and prior to each testing point
3. Parental/guardian permission (informed consent) and child assent prior to transplant.

Exclusion criteria

1. Patients with any preexisting need for gait assistance such as crutches, wheelchair, braces, or walker
2. Previous stem cell transplant in the last 6 months
3. Patients with grade 3 or greater sensory/motor neuropathy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Exercise

Experimental group

Description:

This structured exercise program will incorporate a specially designed, low intensity, resistance based exercise regime created by our physical therapist. In addition to standard of care, it consists of strengthening, endurance, stretching and relaxation exercises tailored according to age and their ability to perform activities throughout their hospitalization. This exercise program will be done three times a week for 30-45 mins supervised by the same physiotherapist throughout hospitalization and will be self-administered every weekend. A home exercise program printout with the appropriate resistance exercises will be provided to the family upon discharge, with instructions on how often to complete throughout the week. Discharged children will attend one supervised exercise session per week with the physiotherapist for six weeks. The family and patient will also be provided a weekly sheet to check off the days they completed strengthening and endurance exercises.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Exercise regimen

Standard of Care

No Intervention group

Description:

The second arm of the study involves patients following standard of care during the HSCT period in the hospital with PT evaluation and management prescribed as needed by their transplant medical team including any additional PT interventions as a result of clinical indications. No additional intervention is incorporated in this group