How Do You Diagnose Cerebral Palsy?
Discussion
Cerebral palsy (CP) is defined as “…a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation, that are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain.” It is the most common physical disability in childhood. It occurs in 1:500 live births, with a prevalence as high as 2.1 case/ 1000 persons. Most patients are born full term.
There are 4 CP types:
Spastic
Occurs in 85-91%
May occur in one or more limbs
Unilateral (hemiplegia, 38%), bilateral (diplegia, 37% with lower limbs affected more than upper extremities), and quadriplegia (24%)
Dyskinetic
Occurs in 4-7%
All limbs affected
Ataxic
Occurs in 4-6%
All limbs affected
Hypotonic
Occurs in 2%
All limbs affected
Common co-morbities include:
Chronic pain (75%)
Intellectual disability (49%)
Epilepsy (35%)
Orthopaedic problems – especially hip dislocations (28%)
Behavior problems (26%)
Incontinence (~24%)
Sleep problems (23%)
Sialorrhea (~20%)
Blindness, functional (11%)
Feed problems (~7%)
Hearing impairment (4%)
In many CP cases, the cause is not clearly defined but probably is multifactorial with important risk factors. Most patients have prenatal or perinatal risk factors and only 8% have post-natal risk factors. Risk factors can include:
Preconception
History of stillbirth, miscarriages
Multiple birth
Low socioeconomic status
Assisted reproduction
Pregnancy
Birth defects
Infectio...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Pediatric Education Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
More News: Blindness | Brain | Cerebral Palsy | Child Abuse | Child Development | Children | Chronic Pain | Databases & Libraries | Disability | Education | Epilepsy | Genetics | Incontinence | Ischemic Stroke | Jaundice | Learning | Miscarriage | MRI Scan | Neurology | Neurosurgery | Opthalmology | Orthopaedics | Pain | Pediatrics | Perinatology & Neonatology | Physical Therapy | Pregnancy | Reproduction Medicine | Respiratory Medicine | Sleep Disorders | Sleep Medicine | Stroke | Substance Abuse | Substance Abuse Disorders | Thyroid | Universities & Medical Training