‘Babies who Stroke’: the leading known cause of cerebral palsy Much is unknown about causation of cerebral palsy but that is not the case for children born at or near full term with hemiplegic (one sided) cerebral palsy. In 30% of these children a blood vessel supplying the brain has become blocked, usually by clot formation. The hemiplegia more commonly involves the right arm and leg as the site of thrombosis is the area of brain supplied by the left middle cerebral ...

Cerebral palsy (CP) was first described in England in 1862.It is a term for a group of non-progressive disorders of movement and posture caused by disturbances in the developing brain. The incidence is thought to be between 1.5 and 3.6 cases per thousand live births. In Australia the rate of CP diagnosed by age 5 years is 2 per thousand. There are about 34,000 Australians with CP with an affected child being born every 18 hours.

The annual cost of caring for each affected person i...