Patient's question:
My aunt gave birth to a daughter last month, but after the child was born, the doctor conducted routine examinations and found that the child was somewhat abnormal. After a series of tests, it was confirmed that the child had cerebral palsy.Doctor's answer:
Hello!! Cerebral palsy in children, also known as infantile cerebral palsy, is a syndrome caused by various difficult-to-identify reasons that lead to brain damage in children. It is caused by central motor dysfunction, intellectual retardation or stagnation, convulsions or refractory epilepsy, among other symptoms, due to brain damage from multiple causes during the prenatal and postnatal months. Fortunately, it is caused by various reasons during the prenatal and postnatal period.The common causative factors are analyzed into three categories: (1) Prenatal factors: Mainly include infections during fetal development, bleeding, hypoxia, developmental malformations, and maternal pregnancy-related conditions such as hypertension syndrome, diabetes, abdominal trauma, and exposure to radiation. (2) Perinatal factors: Due to asphyxia caused by amniotic fluid obstruction, meconium aspiration, or umbilical cord, or due to birth injuries, intracranial hemorrhage, and hypoxia caused by difficult labor or forceps delivery. (3) Postnatal factors: Severe jaundice, severe infections, trauma, and brain hypoxia in newborns can also lead to cerebral palsy. Brain hypoxia and intracranial hemorrhage are the most important causes of infantile cerebral palsy. Among brain hypoxia and intracranial hemorrhage, excluding some factors, they are mainly related to an imbalance in elemental metabolism in children. The examination results are similar to those of adult stroke and its sequelae, which can also be said to be related to an imbalance in elemental metabolism in the mother during pregnancy. This is an internal cause and also the fundamental reason.
Infantile cerebral palsy is a residual phenomenon of congenital or acquired brain lesions. After treatment, children can gradually regain varying degrees of functional recovery. Language can also show significant improvement, and motor functions can also recover to varying degrees. Excessive movements may occur, and some may improve after treatment. However, overall, in the field of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, the main approach to infantile cerebral palsy is still prevention. Rehabilitation methods, physical exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture, and orthopedic surgery have all shown poor efficacy. It can be said that it is a "difficult-to-treat condition for which both Chinese and Western medicine are at a loss." Currently, the methods adopted still have limited effectiveness.