Gianfranco Lamberti - Suprapontine Lesions and Neurogenic Pelvic Dysfunctions: Assessment, Treatment and Rehabilitation

If we wanted to choose an area of rehabilitation, the field in which we can find the most multicultural and interprofessional evolution, this could be indeed the rehabilitation of perineal and pelvic dysfunctions. Despite that, few are known about the role of pelvic rehabilitation in some specific neurological populations who potentially benefit on that. The purpose of this book is to provide a general introduction to the knowledge of pelvic disorders in people affected by suprapontine lesion. The book is addressed to professionals who are dealing with these types of illnesses for the first time as well as to those who are already experts and want to extend their knowledge and interests in this field.

The book takes its cue from the literature and gives more in-depth insights on the diagnosis and treatment of neurogenic urinary and bowel dysfunctions considering also the evolution of the functional imaging techniques in the last decades which has helped us to better understand the physiopathological differences and peculiarities of this subtype of neurological patients having suprapontine lesions and secondary pelvic dysfunctions. The interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of actions involving doctors and health professionals (often with profoundly different backgrounds) are often still uncharted, but surely, it should tend towards an increasingly holistic view, in which overall components cannot be dissociable from the context. Furthermore, the relationships and networks between damage, brain function, bladder and intestinal behaviour are still poorly understood. Thus, the management of pelvic floor dysfunctions in such complex patients is a harder challenge to face compared to non-neurological or even in spinal cord-injured patients.

We hope that this book can open up ways of communication among different professionals by making this topic more accessible, often inexplicably confined (concerning the epidemiological impact and quality of life), to few specialized centres.

In order to make the material more friendly, we have tried to easily explain the various subtopics to be understandable even by professionals who are not specialists in neurourology. We hope we have succeeded in giving a reasonably exhaustive view of this area of its extensive and complex investigations and treatments, in such a way as to involve professionals of other specialties (e.g. rehabilitation, internal medicine, neurology) who often are involved in these pathologies.