Cerebral Palsy in Children of Very Low Birth Weight

Abstract

Of 1,081 children weighing not more than 4 lb. (1,800 g.) at birth, 70 (6.5%) developed cerebral palsy; of these 57 (81%) were included in the syndrome of spastic diplegia; five (7%) had choreo-athetoid cerebral palsy, three (4%) had spastic double hemiplegia and only two (3%) had typical spastic hemiplegia. These proportions are very different from those generally found among cases of cerebral palsy as a whole. Diplegia, but not other types, occurred more often in single than in multiple births. In single births the prevalence of diplegia increased from 2.8% following pregnancies lasting 35 or more weeks to 12.4% in pregnancies lasting less than 31 weeks. It appeared to occur independently of the cause of premature birth, rendering a prenatal origin unlikely.