Cerebral palsy and anaesthesia

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a collective term used to describe a diverse group of neurological disorders characterized by varying degrees of motor, sensory, and intellectual impairment. The condition was first described in 1862 by an orthopaedic surgeon, William Little. He observed that some children, born prematurely or after a complicated labour or delivery, developed stiff spastic legs and postulated that this was caused by cerebral hypoxia at the time of birth. In the late 1890s, Sigmund Freud postulated that many cases of CP were caused, not by complications during the peripartum period, but by abnormalities arising during fetal development. The true significance of Freud’s observations was not fully realized until the 1980s when the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke published a perinatal study which suggested that complicated deliveries could only account for 10% of all CP cases. The life expectancy of many patients with CP now extends into adulthood and they frequently present to both specialized and general hospitals for anaesthesia and surgery.