Clinical features of cerebral palsy of premature children

ObjectiveTo explore clinical features of cerebral palsy of premature infants and attempt to deduce the etiology and time of brain damages.MethodsMaterials included perinatal risk factors, neurodevelopmental evaluation, types of cerebral palsy and CT or MRI findings of 281 cerebral palsied children embryo age less than 37 weeks were analyzed retrospectively.ResultsAmong 281 cases, 47.07% of them were premature infants and most of them (64.67%) suffered from multiple high risk factors especially during perinatal and post neonatal periods. The main causes were perinatal asphyxia, icterus, and twin pregnancy. Spastic diplegia was more common in this group (70.81%), followed by athetosis and mixed of spastic and athetosis. The characteristic of neuroimaging findings was periventricular leukomalacia (PVL).ConclusionFor cerebral palsy of premature children, pematurity is an important cause of cerebral palsy and brain damages are often occurred during perinatal and post neonatal periods, main type is spastic diplegia, and main pathological change is PVL. [