Cerebral Palsy is one of the most common of all medical disorders present at the birth of a newborn baby. Cerebral Palsy is the result of injury to the central nervous system occurring before birth, during labor and delivery, or shortly after birth. The injury to the central nervous system , often the result of oxygen deprivation, causes permanent brain damage that changes to the structure of the infant’s brain. These permanent structural changes stop shortly after birth. The result is what is called “static encephalopathy,” which literally means “an unchanging brain disease.”
Static encephalopathy causes both physical and neurological effects. The physical effects can include inability to walk, impairment of fine motor control and gross motor control. The neurological effects may include tremors and seizures.
Cerebral Palsy most commonly is caused before labor and delivery by infection, stroke, and metabolic problems such as hyperthyroidism and diabetes.
Cerebral Palsy also may be caused during labor and delivery by oxygen deprivation (insufficient oxygen supplies reaching the newborn), often the result of medical malpractice.
Cerebral Palsy may be caused shortly after birth as the result of the baby suffering an infection, untreated jaundice, and Rh disease, also often the result of medical malpractice in both the diagnosis and treatment of such infections and infectious disease processes.
Some children with cerebral palsy are born premature or with obvious signs of infection. In other cases, the cause of permanent brain injury is unknown.
Cerebral Palsy often is diagnosed at birth. Sometimes the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy may not be made until a child is 2 or 3 years old. The clinical test used by doctors to diagnose Cerebral Palsy include testing of the strength of different muscles, the testing of the range of motion of different joints, and the evaluation of the child's physical and intellectual development.
There are no laboratory tests that are determinative of whether a child has Cerebral Palsy. Laboratory testing relating to the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy is used to rule out other causes of the symptoms manifest. Other causes of symptoms consistent with Cerebral Palsy include Tay-Sachs disease or Leukodystrophy.
The abnormal configuration of the muscles of a child with Cerebral Palsy can cause problems with the child’s bones, muscles, and joints. These problems include abnormal positioning of the feet, dislocated hips, and scoliosis, abnormal curvature of the spine. There are physicians who specialize in the proper diagnosis and treatment of these problems.
