Question

What are the causes of cerebral palsy in children?

Answer

There are many causes of cerebral palsy, but more than 1/3 of cases may not have a known cause. Sometimes, many cases may also involve multiple different factors. The most common are prenatal factors, including hereditary and chromosomal diseases, congenital infections, brain malformations or developmental disorders, fetal brain ischemia and hypoxia leading to periventricular white matter softening or basal ganglia damage. Perinatal factors refer to brain damage that occurs during labor and within one week after birth, including brain edema, neonatal shock, intracranial hemorrhage, sepsis, or central nervous system infection, ischemic hypoxic encephalopathy, etc. Perinatal factors may be an important cause of cerebral palsy in premature infants. Factors after late neonates include various causes of non-progressive brain damage that occur from 1 week to 3 or 4 years old, such as central nervous system infections, cerebrovascular diseases, cranial trauma, poisoning, etc.