ABSTRACT

The earliest clinical description of cerebral palsy (CP) is attributed to the orthopedic surgeon, Little, who in 1862 entitled his paper: ‘On the incidence of abnormal parturition, difficult labour, premature birth and asphyxia neonatorum on the mental and physical condition of the child, especially in relation to deformities’1. Subsequently, notable contributions were made by Freud2 and Osier3. Freud classified cerebral palsy in terms of clinical neurological syndromes. Osler focused on the different clinical syndromes that constitute cerebral palsy and described pathological abnormalities found at autopsy. It is presently understood that cerebral palsy is not a single nosological entity but a collection of motor disorders due to cerebral impairment that have occurred during either fetal or early child development.