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Cerebral Palsy - Fact Sheet

• Cerebral palsy is an 'umbrella' description for a group of non-progressive disorders of movement and posture caused by damage to the developing brain.
• These disorders become manifest early in life and are a permanent and nonprogressive condition.
• Cerebral palsy is not a disease and it is not contagious.
• Cerebral palsy is not hereditary or passed from one generation to the next.
• Most children with cerebral palsy are healthy and can expect a normal life span.
• The aetiology of a large number of cases of cerebral palsy is unable to be determined
  - RCH (2005) Third Report of the Victorian Cerebral Palsy Register.
• Prenatal events are now thought to be responsible for approximately 75% of cases of cerebral palsy
  - RCH (2005) Third Report of the Victorian Cerebral Palsy Register.
• The risk of cerebral palsy rises as birth weight falls.
• Cerebral palsy can affect various parts of the body; the leg and arm of one side of the body (hemiplegia), both legs and, less likely, both arms (diplegia), and both arms and legs and the muscles of the face and mouth (quadriplegia or tetraplegia).
• Associated disabilities such as epilepsy, intellectual, visual or auditory impairment may also be present with cerebral palsy.
• The first medical reference to cerebral palsy was by English surgeon W J Little in 1862.
  - Little WJ (1862) On the incidence of abnormal parturition, difficult labour, premature birth and asphyxia neonatorum on the mental and physical condition of the child, especially in relation to deformities. Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London; 3: 293 -344

• Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood.
  - The Australian & NZ Perinatal Societies (1995) The origins of cerebral palsy - a consensus statement. Medical Journal of Australia 162: 85 - 90
• The frequency of cerebral palsy has not changed over the past 40 years.
  - The Australian & NZ Perinatal Societies (1995) The origins of cerebral palsy - a consensus statement. Medical Journal of Australia 162: 85 - 90
• Of every 1000 live births in Victoria, at least 2 children will be diagnosed as having cerebral palsy before the age of 5 years.
• In Australia over 20,000 people have cerebral palsy.