Cerebral palsy: incidence and clinical features in Saudi Arabia
Author: Al Asmari A, Al Moutaery K, Akhdar F, Al Jadid M
Source:
Disability and rehabilitation, 28(22), 1373-1377.
The purpose of this work is to analyse the cerebral palsy (CP) incidence,
aetiology, birthweight, types and/or subdiagnosis and associated impairments,
individually or in combination, in children at Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH).
The study covered the birth year period 1984 - 2003, during which 99,788 live
births were recorded at Riyadh Military Hospital (RMH). Incidence ratio and
clinical features of 412 positive cases of cerebral palsied children between 1 -
10 years old were investigated. Medical information was collected from patient
files at the medical records department. The incidence of CP was 0.41%. The five
intervals of the study period gave a pattern of decreasing percentage incidence.
The case distribution according to birth weight, aetiology, duration and
subdiagnoses was studied. It could be concluded that livebirth incidence of
cerebral palsied patients in Saudi Arabia was relatively high as compared to most
other studies. Severe disability due to cerebral palsy was associated with
impairments such as mental retardation, epilepsy and visual impairments, often
found in combinations