This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

Medicine Notes Paediatrics Notes

Cerebral Palsy Notes

Updated Cerebral Palsy Notes

Paediatrics Notes

Paediatrics

Approximately 40 pages

An overview of the common paediatric conditions - from neonates to developmental delay and all the common childhood-specific illnesses organised by body system. Includes tips on history taking and examination along with investigations and management. Concise yet thorough enough for finals examinations. Colour coded including diagrams...

Available here

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Paediatrics Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Cerebral Palsy

A disorder of movement and posture caused by permanent and non-progressive cerebral lesion acquired early in brain development

  • Often complicated by other neurological and learning difficulties

  • Although the brain lesion itself is non-progressive, the clinical picture changes as the child grows and develops

Epidemiology

  • Prevalence 2.5/1000 children

  • Incidence increasing as younger premature babies are surviving

Aetiology

  • Prenatal

    • Cerebral malformations

    • Congenital infection

    • Metabolic defects (maternal malnutrition)

    • Fetal alcohol syndrome

  • Perinatal

    • Complications of prematurity (including haemorrhage)

    • Intrapartum trauma

    • Hypoxic-ischaemic insult

    • Jaundice

    • Hypoglycaemia

  • Postnatal

    • NAI

    • Head trauma

    • Meningitis

    • Encephalitis

Classification

  • Hemiplegia

    • One side of the body

    • Delayed walking

    • Tiptoe gaite with arm in dystonic position

  • Diplegia

    • Both legs involved with arms less affected or unaffected

    • Excessive hip adduction (difficult to put nappy on)

    • Scissoring of legs

    • Characteristic gaite – feet in equinovarus, walking on tip toe

  • Spastic Quadriplegia

    • All extremeties involved

    • High association with learning difficulties and fits

    • Swallowing difficulties + reflux common

    • Flexion contractures at elbows and knees

  • Athetoid cerebral palsy

    • Basal ganglia damage

    • Writhing movements (increased and decreased tone)

    • Speech affected

    • Intelligence often normal

    • Major physical impairment

Diagnosis

  • May be suspected in neonatal period if baby has difficulty sucking, irritability, convulsions or abnormal neuro exam

  • Diagnosis made later in the first year when following features emerge

    • Abnormalities of tone

      • Initially may be low but then spasticity increases

    • Delays in motor development

      • Marked head lag, delays in sitting + rolling over

    • Abnormal patterns of development

      • Movements not only delayed by also abnormal in quality

    • Persistence of primitive reflexes

      • Moro, grasp

  • Diagnosis made on clinical grounds...

Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Paediatrics Notes.

More Paediatrics Samples