Risk factors associated with cerebral palsy in newborns.

The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with cerebral palsy (CP). For this purpose, a total of 55 newborns were investigated in the case control design study, with a total of 55 additional newborns that were matched to the cases. All patients were recruited in University Clinical Hospital Mostar and other institutions in the region between 1997–2005. The comparison of the Apgar score did not seem to show significant differences between cases and controls (odds ratio [OR]=1.15, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 0.36–3.69). Hypoxia was more common in the CP group (36.3% vs. 5.4% in the control group; p<0.001). Additionally, cases were more frequently exposed to the infections (p<0.001), intracranial hemorrhage (p=0.002), premature delivery, before the 28th gestation week (p=0.027), as well as the premature delivery during the 28–34 gestation week (p=0.001), and 34–38 gestation week (p=0.018). Accordingly, small birth weight was associated with cases more often than controls (p=0.003). Bleeding during pregnancy was also more common in cases than controls (p=0.032), while the breech presentation, emergency cesarean section, hydrocephalus, placenta disorders and pre-eclampsia were not associated with CP. The results suggest that CP cases were more commonly exposed to numerous risks, which all seem to contribute to the increased chances of CP. Traditional indicator, poor Apgar score was not found to be significantly associated with the CP.