Activity

The Unit focuses on the diagnosis of neurological disorders in early and late childhood. The diagnosis process is aimed at the development of specific rehabilitation programs. Different pathways are available:

• assessment and follow-up of patients with pathologies of central nervous system
• diagnosis and treatment of epileptic patients
• evaluation of newborn with swallowing pathologies
• evaluation and treatment of patients with low vision problems
• diagnostic evaluation of hearing impaired patients

Access

• Upon referral by Neonatal Intensive Care Units or La Nostra Famiglia regional Centers
• Following outpatient visits
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.810, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social services: Tel. +39 031/877.457, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Services

0-3 Center for the At-risk infant

Head: Rosario Montirosso, psychologist, psychotherapist, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Eleonora Visintin, psychologist, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Activity: The 0-3 Center offers a clinical psychology service and also carries out scientific research activity. It focuses on the child's first 3 years of life, treating children with a neurodevelopmental disorder or a delay in psychomotor development. The clinical psychology service provides diagnosis and early intervention activities for children of the Unit “Neuropsychiatric Pathologies in Developmental Age” on an inpatient or outpatient basis, day hospital or MAC - an outpatient intensive program. It also offers a psychological and parental support for the families.

The Center offers:

• Psychological diagnosis

• Psychological counselling to families

Access: The service is dedicated to children treated by the Unit “Neuropsychiatric Pathologies in Developmental Age” on an inpatient basis, Day Hospital basis or MAC (an outpatient intensive program).

Low Vision Center

Head: Giuseppina Giammari Aldé, child neuropsychiatrist, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Activity: Visual impairments, as any other disabilities in childhood, can affect the global development of the children, therefore it requires a global intervention. When the visual impairment is part of a multiple disability it is necessary to implement a variety of interventions: each professional has to adapt his work and his setting to the child visual, motor and cognitive conditions. The Low Vision Center carries out a multidisciplinary evaluation and rehabilitation activity that includes the cooperation of many specific professions: neuropsychiatrist, ophtalmologist, therapist, psychologist, educationalist and computer specialist.

Description

Neuropsychiatry/ Pediatric neurology services

• 0-18 months - for neurological disorders of sucklings and babies.
• Swallowing problems of neurological origin.
• Neurological disorders of late childhood.
• Cephalgia in developmental age.
• Rare diseases.
• CNS malformations and genetic syndromes with mental retardation
• Motor disorders in early and late childhood with a focus on congenital forms (primary dystonias) and tics.
• Low vision in developmental age.
• Functional evaluation for clinical-rehabilitative treatments and school integration.

Activity

Access

• Upon referral by NICUs and Units for acute patients or by one of our Regional Centers
• Following a visit to the Brain Injury Service
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.849, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social service: Tel. +39 031/877.453, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clinics

Activity

The Unit provides:

• Intensive rehabilitation treatments and functional evaluation for children with outcome of cerebral palsy or muscle-skeletal deformities, congenital or acquired
• Intensive rehabilitation for post-orthopedic surgery on soft or bone parts
• Intensive rehabilitation treatments for congenital brain injuries (0-5 y.o.)
• Intensive rehabilitation treatments through Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT)
• Robotized rehabilitation and use of Virtual Reality or Immersive VR for the functional recovery of lower and upper limbs
• Treatment of spasticity through injection of botulinum toxin, also for patients with intrathecal baclofen infusion pump
• Evaluation, customization and prescription of aids and auxiliary devices with the assistance of orthopedic technicians.

Access

• Upon referral by national orthopedic surgery Units or one of our regional Centers
• Following a visit in our specialized clinics
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.829, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Service: Tel. +39 031/877.453, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clinics

• Cerebral Palsies
• Babies (CIMT therapy/integrated program for babies)
• Robotized theray
• Spasticity
• Physiatrics, body dysmorphia, rare diseases
• Botulinum toxin treatment
• ITB Refill

Activity

The Unit takes care of patients with:

• tumor outcomes at the different stages of the treatment process (mainly during the rehabilitation phase)
• neuro-cognitive disorders in acquired and congenital neuropathologies

This activity takes place through:

• clinical and functional evaluations
• neuropsychological evaluation and follow-up (only for oncological patients)
• neuropsychological rehabilitation (attention and memory skills, executive and problem solving skills, with a specific focus on the correlation with the injury outcomes - evaluated thanks to neuroimaging and other neurophysiological techniques)
• evaluation and cognitive-behavioral psychological treatment
• rehabilitation programs for the recovery of lower and upper limb functions through traditionalphysiotherapy, CIMT and robotized activities

Access

• Directly from intensive care units, units for acute patients, oncology units (by agreement between doctors)
• Upon referral by one of our regional Centers
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.849, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Service: Tel. +39 031/877.453, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clinics

Follow up

Activity

The Units is involved in the treatment of patients with neuromuscular chronic developmental pathologies, both through outpatient clinical monitoring and short hospital stays. Multidisciplinary evaluations are carried out for the following pathologies:

• Dystrophinopathies (Duchenne and Becker Dystrophy)
• Myotonic Dystrophy and Limb-girdle dystrophy
• Muscular Dystrophy and congenital myopathies
• Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy
• Spinal muscular atrophy(SMA)
• Motor neuron disease with early onset
• Hereditary spastic paraparesis
• Heredodegenerative ataxias (Friedreich Ataxia and Spinocerebellar pathologies)
• Metabolic diseases, in particular of mitochondrial origin
• Hereditary neuropathies

The problems related to the pathology are examined on the basis of the patient’s age and needs. The following evaluations are made:

• motor and orthesic evaluation, evaluation of computer and domotic aids;
• speech evaluation (development of language skills, of myo-oral and oropharyngeal skills, chewing and swallowing skills) and neurocognitive evaluation
• clinical and diagnostic evaluation through neurological, cardiologic and pneumological examination con relativi esami strumentali), evaluation of nutritional status, diagnostic and urine tests, genetic examinations and counselling, eye exams, ENT exams, psychological and neuropsychiatric evaluation,neurophysiological evaluation (EMG/ENG, EEG, PESS), spinal radiography, Brain and spinal cord MRI, physiatric, orthopedic, phoniatric evaluation and fibroscopy

The Unit is a Regional Center for Rare Diseases and is authorised to certificate diagnoses and draw up treatment plans for the above mentioned pathologies.

The Unit doctors are authorized to prescribe motor aids and draw up functional diagnoses (in case of school age children).

Access

• Following a visit in specialized clinics
• Upon referral by one of our regional Centers
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.829, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social Service: Tel. +39 031/877.457, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clinics

• Neurological clinic for neuromuscular pathologies

Activity

Regional Center for Epilepsy participating in the Lombardy Epinetwork (Network of Epilepsy Centers) as a 3rd level Center for pediatric age and 2nd level Center for adult age.

• It takes care of more than 1800 patients with epilepsy, non-epileptic paroxysmal events, sleeping disorders, in Day hospital and on an outpatient basis.
• EEG and EEG polygraph systems
• Polysomnography
• Sleep deprivation EEG
• Long-term EEG monitoring, Video-EEG, dynamic EEG.
• Evoked potentials
• Electromyography

Access

• Neurological examination on an outpatient basis
• Upon referral by one of our Regional Centers or one of our Hospital Units

Clinic

• Neurophysiopathology and epilepsy clinic

Activity

1. Intensive, high complexity and multidisciplinary treatments:
   • Physiotherapy (traditional, CIMT, ARMEO, FES)
   • Speech therapy
   • Neuropsychological treatment
   • Neuro psychomotricity treatment
   • Educational treatment
   • Cognitive-behavioral treatment
   • Psychological treatment
2. Functional assessment
   • Neuropsychological (I and II level)
   • Cognitive-behavioral
   • Postural and mobility aids
   • Gait analysis
3. Training/assessment for:
   • Use of cough assist machine
   • Use of assistive technologies for Augmentative Alternative Communication
   • assistive technologies for school learning (for patients with acquired or congenital cognitive disabilities)
   • activities of daily living
4. For patients with dysphagia or difficulties in chewing:
   • Evaluation of swallowing skills
   • Training for stimulation of swallowing/chewing skills

In neurosensory domain:

1. For visually impaired patients:
   • Evaluation of neuro-visual skills, training/assessment on assistive devices
   • Treatment of neurovisual stimulation
2. For hearing-impaired patients
   • Evaluation of perceptive-auditory skills
   • Training for acoustic stimulation

Access

• Outpatient examination (neurological, physiatric, otolaryngology, phoniatric)
• Following an earlier hospitalization in our Institute

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.320, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Speech therapists
• Therapists of Neuro-psychomotor therapy in developmental age
• Occupational therapists
• Therapists of neuropsychological rehabilitation
• Professional educators

Activity

Physiotherapy Service:

• Active and passive limb mobilisation
• Neuromotor facilitation
• Postural reeducation
• Integrated intensive reeducation
• Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT)
• Advanced technologies rehabilitation: robotics (Lokomat, Armeo...), Virtual reality/Immersive Virtual reality (GRAIL, Khymeia)
• Respiratory rehabilitation
• Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) and FES-Cycling
• Aquatic rehabilitation

Speech therapy service:

• Recovery of oral and swallowing functions (dysphagia)
• Augmentative Alternative Communication (CAA)
• Interventions on preverbal communication skills
• Rehabilitation of pragmatic competences
• Rehabilitation of language functions

Neuro-psychomotor therapy:

• Facilitation of adaptive and affective-relational skills
• Promotion of consciousness and bodily-self consciousness
• Support to the integration of psychomotor functions (relationship space-time-objects)
• Support to the developmental stages of play

Occupational therapy:

• Training for the use of aids and orthoses
• Training to personal autonomy and self-care
• Training for expressive activities
• Adaptation to the environment

Neuropsychological therapy:

• Reeducation of cognitive functions: attention, memory, executive functions, problem solving, visual-perceptional functions, visual- constructive functions.
• Treatment for the building of adaptive functions in the cognitive field

Educational therapy:

• see Service of Cognitive-behavioral psychology and Clinical psychology

Access

The Service is dedicated to patients admitted in the Neurophysiatric Unit or attending the Outpatient Intensive Program (Macro Attività Complessa Ambulatoriale Dipartimentale - M.A.A.C) .

Activity

• Diagnosis of neuropsychological and cognitive skills for the Neurophysiatric Area:
  • Neuropsychological and cognitive-behavioral assessment of the patient for:
    • Outcome of acquired brain injuries (head trauma and other pathologies)
    • Progressive neurodegenerative pathologies during youth
    • Neuropsychological deficits in epyleptic encephalopathies
    • Intellectual disabilities in syndromic and non-syndromic congenital pathologies
  • Monitoring of behavioral attitude and responsiveness of patients in a vegetative state or in a minimally conscious state, also by administration of evaluation scales
• Drawing up of specific rehabilitation (neuropsychological and logopedic) programs and technical supervision on the above mentioned assessments
• Behavioral treatments for patients with outcome of acquired or congenital brain lesions in the presence of specific behavioral problems
• Psychological rehabilitation treatments (psychostimulations) for patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state
• Specific training for care-givers, aimed at improving care skills and competences during hospitalization, day hospital or outpatient treatments
• Supervision of therapists and educationalists involved in the activities above mentioned
• Support to school teachers during school reintegration for patients of Neurophysiatric Area, with drafting of the documentation required by law
• Collaborations with tutoring activities for post-graduate internships both for Bachelor degree, Master degree and post-degree schools of specialization
• Scientific research in the neuropsychological and psychological-behavioral areas

Access

The Service is dedicated to patients admitted in the Neurophysiatric Unit or attending the Outpatient Intensive Program.

Activity

The Unit is focused on intensive rehabilitation of children with acquired brain injuries: head injury, encephalitis, anoxia or other, through:

• rehabilitation pathways for the recovery of impaired functions and adaptive functions
• social reintegration pathways
• training for the weaning from a tracheostomich cannula and from enteral nutrition, with recovery of oral feeding
• training for the recovery of alertness for patients in vegetative state
• motor rehabilitation through traditional, robotic or VR treatments
• rehabilitation for the recovery of the hand and upper limb through traditional physiotherapy, Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) and robotized activities
• speech and cognitive functions therapy (attention, memory, executive functions)
• psychological and behavioral rehabilitation
• occupational therapy in collaboration with Centro Ausili (Disability Aids Center)

Access

• Upon referral by NICUs and Units for acute patients or by one of our Regional Centers
• Following a visit to the Brain Injury Service
• Filling out a detailed application form

Contacts

Secretariat: Tel. +39 031/877.849, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Social service: Tel. +39 031/877.453, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Clinics

Activity

• Psychological diagnosis
  • Psychodiagnostic individual examination, including cognitive assessment by administration of specific evaluation scales
  • Direct or in situ clinical observation
  • Evaluation of educational dynamics and of the coping skills of family or caregivers, for patients with intellectual disabilities, neurodegenerative or syndromic pathologies, neurosensory deficits
• counselling to individuals and/or to caregivers
• Support to school teachers during school reintegration for patients of Neurophysiatric Area, with drafting of the documentation required by law
• Supervision and monitoring of educationalists for the conduction of the laboratories of educational observation

Access

The Service is dedicated to patients admitted in the Neurophysiatric Unit or attending the Outpatient Intensive Program

Activity

Support to the school integration process of the hospitalized children, through:

• support to the teachers for the definition of the Personalized Learning Plan and the Personalized Educational Plan
• useful information for the educational and learning activity
• support for school guidance to the family and to the school of origin
• evaluation of educational needs of children with sensory disabilities through a tiflo-didactic and pedagogic assessment, in particular for visually impaired/blind students and hearing-impaired/deaf pupils

Access

The Service is dedicated to patients admitted in the Neurophysiatric Unit or attending the Outpatient Intensive Program .