Risk Factors and Prognosis of Epilepsy in Children with Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy

Objective Epilepsy is reported in 15-90% of the children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) but its clinical course is not well defined. We conducted a retrospective study on children with hemiparetic CP who were referred to Pediatric Neurology Department of Mofid Hospital. The aim of our study was to evaluate the risk factors and prognosis of epilepsy in children with hemiparetic CP. Materials & Methods We evaluated 64 children with hemiparetic CP who were referred to Pediatric Neurology Department of Mofid Hospital between 2006 and 2008. According to our protocol, patients were divided into two groups: 34 children in the case group (hemiparetic patients with epilepsy) and 30 children in the control group (hemiparetic patients without epilepsy). Results Prenatal, perinatal and postnatal events, maternal age at the time of delivery, socioeconomic status of the family, familial history of epilepsy, neuroimaging findings, side of the hemiparesia and age at diagnosis of hemiparesis were not considered as risk factors for epilepsy in hemiparetic children, but microcephaly, severity of hemiparetic CP and mental retardation were significantly associated with an increased risk of epilepsy in children with hemiparetic CP. Conclusion Our study showed that microcephaly, severity of hemiparesis and mental retardation were risk factors for developing epilepsy in children with hemiparetic CP; furthermore, they had negative effects on rehabilitation outcome in these patients. Keyword: Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Children, Microcephaly, Mental Retardation Introduction Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a term that defines a group of non – progressive syndromes of motor impairment secondary to lesions or anomalies of the brain, arising in the early stages of its development (1). Cerebral palsy has been subdivided into various entities based on the clinical presentation: Spastic cerebral palsy: a) Spastic quadriparesis b) Spastic diplegia Parvaneh KARIMZADEH MD 1, Mehran AGHA MOHAMMAD POUR MD2, Susan AMIRSALARI MD 3, Seyyed Hassan TONEKABONI MD1 1. Associate Professor of Pediatric Neurology, Pediatric Neurology Research Center, Department of Pediatric Neurology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,