Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about cerebral palsy.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero definals.com slash cerebral palsy

or in the neurology section of the zero definals pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Cerebral palsy is the name given to the permanent neurological problems that result from damage to the brain around the time of birth.

It's not a progressive condition, however, the nature of the symptoms and the problems may vary over time during growth and development.

There is huge variation in the severity and the types of symptoms in children with cerebral palsy,

ranging from completely wheelchair-bound and dependent on others for all activities of daily living

to Paralympic athletes with only subtle problems with coordination or mobility.

Let's go through the causes of cerebral palsy.

These causes can be thought of as antinatal, perinatal or postnatal. Antinatal causes are things like

maternal infections and trauma during pregnancy. Perinatal causes are things like birth

asphyxia or a lack of oxygen to the brain during birth, and preterm birth.

Postnatal causes are things like meningitis, severe neonatal jaundice, and head injury.

There's a few types of cerebral palsy that you need to be aware of.

Spastic cerebral palsy refers to hypotonia or increased tone and reduced function that results from damage to the upper motor neurons. This kinetic cerebral palsy refers to problems controlling

muscle tone with hypotonia and hypotonia, causing atheroid movements and oromotor problems.

This is the result of damage to the basal ganglia in the brain.

Ataxic cerebral palsy refers to problems with coordinated movement, resulting from damage to the cerebellum.

And mixed cerebral palsy refers to a mix of spastic, discinetic and or ataxic features.

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