2698

CHANGING EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CEREBRAL PALSY IN SAUDI ARABIA

Ahmed Al Jarallah, MD

Saudi Arabia

Cerebral Palsy (CP) covers a wide spectrum of conditions characterized by impairment of movement and posture. It has a prevalence of 2.0 per 1000 live births of which 75% is of unknown aetiology. The past 3 decades have seen an increased survival rate of very small preterm infants, resulting in a change in the pattern of cerebral palsy. The prevalence of CP in Saudi Arabia is not known. In a community survey of neurological disorders in Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of CP was 4.29 per 1000 population. We evaluated the changes in frequency and distribution of the clinical types of CP.

482 disabled children seen in our rehabilitation centre between 1986 and 1992. The observed panorama of CP was unlike the findings in a previous similar study on 323 children seen at the centre during the first 17 months following its inauguration.

There was significant increase in cases of cerebral palsy (56% Vs 45% P=0.0002) compared to other categories of disability. Spastic tetraplegia increased sharply (41% Vs 6.2% P=0.0001) whereas cases of spastic diplegia decreased significantly (32% Vs 50% P=0.0006). This could have resulted from the fact that more high risk babies are now surviving following the recent surge of expansion of neonatal intensive care. These differences lead us to conclude that the clinical panorama of CP might be an indicator of socio-economic development.