Cerebral palsy in Saudi Arabia: a clinical study of 102 cases

Abstract

One hundred and two children with severe cerebral palsy (CP), referred to us during the period 1980 to 1983, were analysed for aetiology and clinical features. Ninety-one children were under the age of two years. Male to female ratio was 3:2. The causes of CP were prenatal in 23.5%, perinatal in 48%, and postnatal in 28.4% of cases. All the clinical types were represented and the study revealed the well-established high frequency of associated neurological deficits. Cerebral palsy was considered medically preventable in at least 30% of the cases, through improvements in obstetric and neonatal care services and control of infection. There is need, also, to establish integrated interdisciplinary teams for the effective diagnosis and complete habilitation of CP patients.

Neurological Disorders in Saudi Children at the Al-Majardah General Hospital, Asir Region

“…This finding conforms with the general impression that seizure disorders are by far the most common neurological problems in children worldwide [11], a trend which was also documented in two other studies conducted in Nigeria [12,13]. With regard to cerebral palsy, the observation [1,4,13] that acquired factors such as birth injuries play a leading etiological role in developing countries is also supported by the findings of this study. Contrary to other reports from Nigeria in which hyperbilirubinemia was responsible for between 16% to 60% of cases of cerebral palsy [13][14][15], severe neonatal jaundice was noted in only 5.7% of cerebral palsied children in this study.…”

“…This difference is probably due to the high incidence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in Nigeria, the widespread use of agents which precipitate hemolysis in the affected neonates [16] and late referral of jaundiced infants to secondary and tertiary health institutions. The preponderance of the spastic cerebral palsy and, in particular, the tetraplegic/diplegic varieties has been identified in other studies in Saudi Arabia [1,4] and elsewhere [17,18].…”

Risk Factors of Mental Retardation in Children Attending an Educationally Subnormal/Mental School in Dammam, Saudi Arabia

“…However, others have suggested an association between home deliveries and cerebral palsy [17]. Unlike the finding of Dale and Stanley [21], the mode of delivery in our study did not appear to be associated with mental retardation.…”

“…However, these two symptoms could be related to a variety of intrauterine infections (3,7,(17)(18)(19) which are known to be associated with mental retardation in the children of affected mothers. This may be so in view of the significantly fewer antenatal visits by mothers in the MR group.…”

“…Variables such as parity and family size obviously play a role in the frequency of the antenatal visits and these two variables were found more in mothers from the lower socioeconomic class compared to the middle socioeconomic class. The importance of antenatal care needs to be stressed in such mothers [17,18,20].…”