Determinants of cerebral palsy in children: systematic review.

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders of movement and postural control caused by a nonprogressive defect or lesion of the developing brain. Several prepregnancy risk factors have been described including maternal age, parity and maternal diseases including epilepsy, diabetes and thyroid disease. There are few in-depth studies on the causes of CP. In the present systematic review, databases searched were Google Scholar and PubMed to identify data on determinants of CP in the world. Studies were included if they specifically mentioned CP as an outcome, the study objective is to identify factors associated with CP in children and all quantitative observational studies. JBI Critical Appraisal Tools were used to assess the methodological quality of a study. Papers that meet the inclusion criteria were rigorously appraised by two critical appraisers. 40 consistent determinants of CP in children from 95 research articles that meet inclusion criteria are included in the review. The majority of studies (24 articles) showed that premature babies and low weight were determinants of CP in children, whereas 15 studies showed that low Apgar scores were determinants of CP in children. The commonest determinants of CP in children are premature babies and low weight, low Apgar scores, intrauterine infection, congenital brain malformations, thyroid disease, premature rupture of membrane (PROM) and placental abruption. Preventing preterm delivery, low birth weight and intrauterine infection as well as immediate neonatal resuscitation for newborns with low Apgar scores may help to prevent CP in children.