Cerebral Palsy: State of Art

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in childhood. It affects 2 to 2.5 children in 1000 live-births, with 20 to 30 fold increased prevalence in preterm infants. Despite of progress in perinatal care, the prevalence of cerebral palsy did not change in the last 50 years. New knowledge about etiological factors, such as inflammation, elevated level of cytokines, vascular strokes and genetic factors shift the origin of cerebral palsy mostly into antenatal period, making intrapartal damage responsible for less than 10% of cases. CP is becoming increasingly the subject of interdisciplinary research. Fetal neurosonography with a growing number of studies promises better understanding of the normal functional maturation of the human brain which may lead to effective prevention and treatment of cerebral palsy. Advances in 4D ultrasound resulted in development of KANET as tool for detection of abnormal fetal behavior.