Antenatal and perinatal antecedents of moderate and severe spastic cerebral palsy

Routinely collected perinatal morbidity data were abstracted for 204 cases of moderate and severe spastic cerebral palsy and 816 matched controls. Sep arate analyses were conducted for cases with birth-weight greater than or e qual to 2,500 g and birth-weight <2,500 g. The presence of a congenital abn ormality was an important risk factor for cerebral palsy in both groups and further analyses were conducted after dividing the groups according to pre sence or absence of a congenital abnormality In the <2,500 g group, resusci tation needed was clearly identified as a risk factor for cerebral palsy in the group with no congenital abnormalities (adjusted OR=3.4; 95% CI=1.6-7. 5) while in the group with congenital abnormalities, none of the risk facto rs were clearly associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy. Among the cases with birthweight greater than or equal to 2,500 g, intrauterine h ypoxia/birth asphyxia was clearly associated with an increased risk of cere bral palsy (adjusted OR=18.1; 95% CI=1.8-186) in the group with no congenit al abnormalities while in the group with congenital abnormalities, none of the factors were clearly associated with an increased risk of cerebral pals y.