Cerebral Palsy

This is the condition in which brain damage around time of birth leads to partial paralysis. Between 0.1 and 0.2 percent of children have some form of cerebral palsy. The specific cause of most cases of cerebral palsy is unknown. The most commonly predicted cause is traumatic delivery due to small maternal pelvis, large fetal head, or the partial separation of the placenta from the uterus before delivery. Other causes include oxygen deprivation, delayed spontaneous respiration, or severe cardiac malformations. As a result of the above, the infant have a small brain, hydrocephalus, or focal lesions in the brain. The child's appear to be demented and deformed to the bright, alert, and happy, with one wasted and spastic limb. Physical therapy is available, but the frequency of cerebral palsy will diminish only with improved prenatal care and delivery techniques.

Three main categories:

Spastic syndromes (about 70 percent of cases): The muscles become stiff or paralyzed, common forms are hemiplegia, which involves all the limbs to a similar degree, and diplegia, which involves all the limbs but affects the legs more severely.

Athetoid syndromes (about 20 percent of cases): Slow, involuntary movements affect the extremities or the upper parts of the limbs. In some cases abrupt movements, resembling the movements of people with chorea, also occur. These movements increase with emotional tension and disappear during sleep.

Ataxic syndromes (about 10 percent of cases): These involve weakness with balance and coordination. The common symptoms are defects in vision, convulsive seizures, and mental retardation.

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