Epidemiologic Characteristics of Patients with Cerebral Palsy

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the demographical and clinical features of patients with cerebral palsy (CP) attending to our outpatient or inpatient clinics. Materials and Methods: Children admitted to Inonu University Faculty of Medicine Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation outpatient or inpatient clinics, Malatya, Turkey with the diagnosis of CP during the study period were included in the study. Age, sex, etiological factors, clinical classifications, and epidemiological characteristics such as socio-economic status as well as the problems associated with CP were analyzed in all patients. Results: Of the total of 130 patients with mean ages 51.05 ± 36.06 months, 51 were girls and 79 were boys. The most common etiologic risk factors were bleeding and presence of threatened miscarriage in prenatal period; asphyxia, low birth weight and prematurity in perinatal period; and neonatal convulsions and hyperbiluribinemia in the postnatal period. Consanguineous marriage was present in 24.6% of families. In clinical classification it was seen that 45 subjects were spastic quadriplegic (34.6%), 41 were spastic diplegic (31.5%), 15 were dyskynetic (11.5%), 14 were spastic hemiplegic (10.8%), 10 were mixed type (7.7%) and 5 were hypotonic/ataxic (3.8%). Conclusion: Prenatal risk factors constitute the foremost risk factors in CP etiology. CP incidence can be lowered by close follow up of the newborns who has been considered as high risk newborns due to the presence of risk factors during pregnancies or deliveries, and by increasing the number of neonatal intensive care units. Besides, it is important to raise public awareness about consanguinity marriages in our country.