J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2006 Aug;30(4):315-321.

The Functional Prognosis of Ambulation in Each Type of Cerebral Palsy

• Lee JH
• Koo JH
• Jang DH
• Park EH
• Sung IY

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
This study is to investigate the prognosis of functional ambulation in each type of cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD: Medical records of 385 patients were retrospectively reviewed that visited outpatients department and were diagnosed as CP. Various information was surveyed including CP type, gestational age at birth, birth weight and associated problems such as mental retardation and seizure and gross motor functional status such as ambulational status and Gross Motor Functional Classification System (GMFCS). All of them were compared between each type. The influences of seizure and mental retardation on gross motor function were also investigated.
RESULTS
Functional ambulation was achieved in 58.2% in overall. Inspecting in each type, 93.7% of spastic hemiplegia, 67.6% of spastic diplegia, 12.2% of spastic quadriplegia, 78.7% of dyskinetic type can ambulate functionally. Birth weight or gestational age had no independent influences on ambulation within each type. Seizure influenced negatively on ambulation of diplegic CPs with significance and mental retardation in diplegic CPs and quadriplegic CPs than any other type.
CONCLUSION
Over the half of CP patients achieved functional ambulation. Hemiplegia and diplegia had good prognosis among all types. Seizure and mental retardation negatively affected ambulation function of CP patients, especially in diplegic CPs and quadriplegic CPs.

Keyword

Cerebral palsy; Ambulation; Gross motor functional classification system; Seizure; Mental retardation

MeSH Terms

Birth Weight
Cerebral Palsy*
Classification
Gestational Age
Hemiplegia
Humans
Intellectual Disability
Medical Records
Outpatients
Parturition
Prognosis*
Quadriplegia
Retrospective Studies
Seizures
Walking*