Congenital anomalies in children with cerebral palsy in rural Bangladesh

Modern approaches to visual rehabilitation of patients with neuromotor disorde

Background. Approximately 50 % of children with cerebral palsy have vision problems, manifested in strabismus, impaired eye mobility, refractive errors, nystagmus development and partial atrophy of the optic nerve.

The aim: to present a clinical case of combined correction of myopia and divergent strabismus in a patient with cerebral palsy (CP).

Materials and methods. A clinical case of combined correction of myopia and divergent strabismus in a patient with cerebral palsy is presented. General anesthesia was used to perform a two-stage treatment under one anesthesia: the first stage – laser myopia correction by femtosecond extraction of the lenticule through a small access (SMILE) to both eyes, the second stage was the strabismus correction by performing tenoscleroplasty of the external rectus muscle and resection of the internal rectus muscle of both eyes. The sequence of stages is due to the relative traumatism of strabismus surgery, in some cases, accompanied by a reaction from the bulbar conjunctiva and the cornea in the form of edema, which, during subsequent femtosecond vision correction, can affect the refractive result and worsen visual acuity in the postoperative period.

Results. The performed treatment let significantly increase uncorrected visual acuity, achieve a correct and stable eye position, which became the basis for changing the vision nature from monocular to binocular.

Conclusion. Thus, modern laser and surgical technologies in combination with an adequate anesthesia allow rehabilitating patients as much as possible in a short time, even with severe forms of cerebral palsy, and significantly improving the quality of life. 

Developmental anomalies and associated impairments in Saudi children with cerebral palsy: a registry-based, multicenter study

Background

There are few epidemiological data to support rehabilitation programs for cerebral palsy (CP). Scarce international studies described the developmental anomalies (DAs) among children with CP. To our knowledge, the Arab countries did not publish data regarding this topic. This study aimed to describe the percentage of DAs among children with CP and detect the association between clinical subtypes and impairment severity in children with various DAs. We collected registry data of 679 children with cerebral palsy, between 2014 and 2019, from Armed Forces Hospitals, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We recorded demographic, perinatal, postnatal, developmental anomalies, subtypes, and impairment characteristics. We utilized the chi-square test to calculate the differences between groups.

Results

We reported significant differences between the children with and without anomalies regarding the percentages of consanguinity, preterm labor, low birth weight, and neonatal intensive care unit admission (P = 0.001, 0.002, 0.003, 0.005, respectively). Congenital dysplasia of the hip and hydrocephalus was the most frequent skeletal and nervous anomalies among children with DAs (19.1% and 12.8%, respectively). The spastic bilateral pattern was significantly higher among children with skeletal anomalies than the central nervous system/other groups (P < 0.001). The nervous anomalies group had higher frequencies of severe intellectual, motor, speech, and visual disabilities and a higher percentage of seizures than all other groups.

Conclusions

The frequency of children with anomalies in this study was comparable to previous studies. Children with CP and nervous system anomalies had more severe motor disabilities and associated impairments.