خلاصه

• An umbrella term referring to a non-progressive disease of the brain originating during the antenatal, neonatal, or early postnatal period when brain neuronal connections are still evolving.
• Most common cause of childhood disability affecting 2.5 per 1000 individuals in the industrialised world.
• All patients present with motor impairment; 80% have spasticity. Other movement disorders observed are dystonia, athetosis, chorea, and ataxia.
• Other common problems include feeding difficulties, speech impairment, intellectual deficits, urinary incontinence, and a variable sensory/proprioceptive loss.
• Management is multidisciplinary and includes occupational, physical, and speech therapy; neurology and neurosurgery; psychiatry; urology; ophthalmology; and orthopaedic, paediatric, dietary, and psychosocial services. Educational and vocational support is also needed.
• Spasticity can be treated with oral medications, botulinum toxin and other injections; intrathecal baclofen; or selective posterior rhizotomy.
• Physical, occupational, and speech therapy address motor function, communication, and activities of daily living to prevent deformity and optimise independence and quality of life. Orthopaedic interventions address contractures, scoliosis, subluxing hips, and extremity deformity.