A Short Retrospectine Review of CP in Children

Cerebral palsy is a static encephalopathy and may be defined as a non-progressive disorder of posture and movement, often associated with epilepsy and abnormalities of speech, vision and intellect resulting from a defect or lesion of the developing brain (1). The exact incidence and prevalence from our country is not known. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical profile of cerebral palsy and to find out the various predisposing factors. Methods: The present series was a retrospective study involving 210 cases of cerebral palsy. All the cases were thoroughly evaluated and the necessary investigations were done. Minear's classification of cerebral palsy (2), was used to classify and evaluate the patients. Associated handicaps such as subnormal intelligence, ocular defects, speech defects, deafness and convulsions were also noted. Results: The distributions of the cases of Cerebral Palsy are shown in Table I. amongst the 210 cases studied, the sex ratio was observed to be 2.8: 1. The athetoid, rigid, ataxic and mixed types of cerebral palsy were found mostly in males. Ninety two cases (44%) were first born. The head circumference was within 3 SD in 117 (56%) cases and was below 3 SD in 92 (44%) cases. Seventeen cases (8%) had high arched palate and other associated findings such as club foot, hydrocephalus, epicanthic folds etc. were found in 30 cases (14%).