Orthopedic Surgery and Spastic Diplegia

Posted on October 11, 2007 by David Austin

If you are into reading scientific studies on the efficacy of surgery to improve muscle strength in patients with a cerebral palsy diagnosis then here is a new one.

Muscle strength changes following multi-level surgery in cerebral palsy and the impact of rehabilitation on functional recovery are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to quantify lower limb muscle strength changes in children with spastic diplegia after multi-level orthopaedic surgery and to compare the efficacy of progressive resistance strengthening (RS) versus active exercise (AE).Twenty children with spastic diplegia (mean age 12.5 years) participated in this prospective randomised controlled trial


This is a link to the introduction.  To read the full article you will already have to have a reader that gets you into Elsevier.

Recovery of muscle strength following multi-level orthopaedic surgery in diplegic cerebral palsy

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Etiologic Profile of Spastic Diplegia in Children

Posted on September 11, 2007 by David Austin

This title is from an Abstract published in Pediatric Neurology in the September Issue.  "Etiologic Profile of Spastic Diplegia in Children" is a fancy way of saying what causes Spastic Diplegia.

Here's what jumped out at me.

The top three diagnoses were hypoxic-ischemic perinatal asphyxia (33%), periventricular leukomalacia (15%), and central nervous system infections (11%).In premature children, the most common diagnoses were periventricular leukomalacia (33%), perinatal asphyxia (26%), and central nervous system infections (15%). In term-born children, the most frequent diagnoses were perinatal asphyxia (37%), metabolic disease (12%), and structural malformation or infection (9% each).

There is a higher risk of injury to a child if the child is born premature.  This is why one of the questions we need answered when investigating a medical malpractice action is "Was the child born premature"

You can see from the above results that the "cause" with the highest percentage in full term children is perinatal asphyxia.

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