Clinical correlations in cerebral palsy

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of persistent (but not necessarily unchanged), movement, posture, muscle tone and motor skills disorders non-progressive, with early onset, due to non-progressive impairments, occurring on an immature brain or a brain under development (prenatal, perinatal, postnatal during the first 3-4 years of life). It is associated to a variable extent with: cognitive disorders, epilepsy, sensory deficits, behaviour disorders.

Aim: The study of the correlations between the clinical forms/subtypes of CP, comorbidities, and severity of functional impairment.

Material and method: It is a retrospective trial aimed only at patients with the diagnosis of cerebral palsy admitted at Paediatric Neurology Clinic of the "Alexandru Obregia" Clinical Hospital in 2010.Results, discussions and conclusions: Patients with cerebral palsy corresponding with the criteria for inclusion: 379. The spastic CP type has prevailed. Comorbidities like mental retardation, epilepsy, and ophthalmic disorders were found with greater frequency than in the studies in the literature.The unilateral spastic form was statistically correlated with slight functional impairment (GMFCS I), with the absence of comorbidities or mild mental retardation, or with focal epilepsy when there is epilepsy. The bilateral spastic, tetraparetic and dyskinetic forms were correlated significantly with severe functional impairment (GMFCS IV, V), with profound or severe retardation, microcephaly, swallowing disorders, statural, ponderal hypotrophy, blindness and epilepsy. The bilateral spastic paraparetic form, which in the literature is mentioned as having fewer associated disorders (for example strabismus, slight retardation), when there is severe functional impairment, it may have the same comorbidities as the tetraparetic form (similar to the cases studied in the hospital). Comorbidities are the main admission cause and it correlates with the severity and prognosis.