Cerebral Palsy Declines in High-Risk Infants

European study suggests better neonatal care is paying off for low birth weight babies.

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, January 5, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

FRIDAY, Jan. 5 (HealthDay News) -- British researchers are reporting a decline in cerebral palsy among the most vulnerable newborns, and American pediatricians say a similar trend is probably happening in the United States.

Data on 1,575 babies of very low birth weight or those born of multiple pregnancies at 16 European centers showed a decline in the prevalence of cerebral palsy from 60.6 per 1,000 in 1980 to 39.5 in 1996.

The decline in cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that affect body movement and muscle coordination, has occurred while such babies have a better chance of survival, the report said. The improvements are especially marked in newborns weighing less than one kilogram (2.2 pounds). The researchers attributed the advances to general improvement in neonatal care.

The study findings, by researchers at the University of Liverpool, are published in the Jan. 6 issue of The Lancet.

The numbers show that "improvement in neonatal care has not resulted in increased survival at the cost of substantial morbidity," the report said.

A paper reporting a similar decline in the incidence of cerebral palsy in high-risk infants at one U.S. hospital, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, is about to be published, said Dr. Maureen Hack, a professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. Hack is co-author of that paper and an editorial accompanying The Lancet report. She's also in charge of high-risk infants at the hospital.

But a lack of data on U.S. births makes it impossible to say definitely that the improvement is nationwide, she said.

"As far as I can tell, no one else has reported this," Hack said.

But her co-author, Dr. Deanne Wilson Costello, an associate professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University, said, "Anecdotally, pediatricians seem to be reporting similar trends, and I suspect we will see similar reports pop up around the United States."

One major factor in the improvements in survival and reduced incidence of cerebral palsy is two very different uses of steroids, Hack and Costello said.