Cerebral Palsy Complications, Prevention & Risk Factors

Cerebral palsy is a condition caused by damage to any part of the brain during development. This damage is categorized to occur anytime during prenatal, perinatal or postnatal period. Poor obstetric care had been regarded as resulting many of these cerebral palsy complications but it is seen now that even in the countries having most sophisticated obstetric care, the incidence of cerebral palsy has remain constant.

Although in most of the countries it is estimated to be around 2-3 per 1000 live births, in India it is expected to be more on account of various problems since pre-pregnancy period to child care 2-3 years after birth. Prenatal factors are multiple(twins, triplets ) pregnancy, hypertensive mother, sever anemia, history of spontaneous abortion, alcohol consumption, hydroamnios, premature rupture of membrane, birth asphyxia, very low birth weight, preterm delivery, difficult delivery, severe jaundice, convulsions, very high fever, sever infection like malaria, Japanese encephalitis, practically any reason which would cause any damage to the developing brain. i.e. upto the age of 4-5 years of life. In these factors, some of the causes are preventable by providing good antenatal check up & good perinatal management of neonates but other factors are not preventable.

These children can present in a variety of manner like spastic, hypotonic, dyskinetic, ataxic or mixed variety. Spasticity can affect one limb (monoplegia), both lower limb and lesser extent upper limb (diplegia), One side both limbs (hemiplegia), all the four limbs and trunk (quadriplegia). Apart from this, these children can also have various other associated medical problems depending upon the area of the brain involved. They can have behavior problems like attention deficit disorder, convulsions, vision problem, hearing problem, epilepsy, lack of immunity and in few cases mental retardation. If we delay the diagnosis and treatment various cerebral palsy complications like deformities and gait problems can develop. The child may not be able to carry out an activity of daily living independently.

Therefore it is of utmost importance that whatever is preventable should be prevented at the earliest and with full efforts. Since this problem affects not only an individual or family but whole society we all must come forward to take our responsibilities. So there is a need to develop our system so as to minimize the cerebral palsy risk factors, early diagnosis and increase the facilities to not only make their lives better but to integrate them into the mainstream of society and become a productive part of the nation.

To prevent the development of risk factors the first and foremost important thing is to increase female education and aware the society to keep them in good nutrition and health. An educated female can understand and prevent cerebral palsy complications and if having a cerebral palsy baby can take much better care. It is the responsibility of the health system (both government and private), society and family members to provide the best care to women since the beginning and strictly during pregnancy and childbirth.

Early cerebral palsy diagnosis and treatment is most important part and mainstay of cerebral palsy prevention of disability and better CP treatment. The healthcare staff at all the levels should be trained for the early identification, which is possible if they are trained for identifying delayed milestones and some specific features in early childhood. These children records can be maintained in CP register and also there should be some proper referral system for these cases to refer them at the earliest. Apart from this standard guidelines should be developed for early diagnosis and treatment of these children.

Our health system must also be equipped with quality health services and be able to provide quality and specialized physiotherapy, corrective surgeries, well trained medical and paramedical staff and cost effective and quality equipment suited to Indian circumstances.

To integrate them into the mainstream of society can be done by developing a disable friendly system like inclusive education, awareness to people and lobbying for disable friendly environment, good transportation system and job opportunities in various cadres.

Trishla foundation is an organization situated in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India which is working for the goal of support these children and their families with a team of hardworking and dedicated therapist, social workers, and other experts under the guidance of Dr. Jitendra Kumar Jain.

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