By retrospectively comparing the data of 6 million California births during the years 1991 – 2001 with 8400 infants with CP within this birth cohort, this study will be among the first to focus primarily on pre-partum risk factors. The research is designed to uncover prenatal and pre-partum material characteristics important in the pathogenesis of CP, with the long term goal of developing new strategies and approaches to prevent CP.


Most treatments for cerebral palsy (CP) are initially directed toward children. What is not clearly established is the long- term effects of such treatments. Many appear helpful in the short term but prove to be disadvantageous in the long run. Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) is a permanent, irreversible neurosurgical procedure for reducing spasticity in cerebral palsy. Parents contemplating SDR for their child would like assurance that that there will not be harmful complications from it as the child ages into adolescence and adulthood. We now have new evidence...







