Incidence of Deformities of the Locomotive Apparatus Cause by High Muscle Tone in Children Suffering from Cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy is defined as a group of neuroprogessive, but often changing motor damage caused by lesions of the central nervous system in the early stages of development which causes the increase in muscle tone. Goal: The goal of this study is to determine how often the limb deformities in children with cerebral palsy are caused by increased muscle tone. Material and methodology: The study included all patients diagnosed with cerebral palsy who are habilitated in the department of developmental diagnosis, habilitation and rehabilitation of the Pediatric Clinic of the Clinical Center, University of Sarajevo in the period 2007-2010. The study was retrospective and was conducted on thirty two patients. The analyzed data are presented in tables using descriptive methods of the absolute number of cases, percentage, arithmetic mean with standard deviation and median. Results: The total number of patients was 32 of which 19 were male and 13 female. 27 children (84.4%) have proved presence of patho-morphological substrate of the brain. Most of our patients are those with spasmodic tetraparesis 22 or 68.8%. Of the total number of respondents 21 of them (65.6%) had deformities of the upper limbs. In all patients with cerebral palsy, accompanied by increased muscle tone is confirmed the presence of deformities of the lower limbs. The most common forms of deformities were a combination of hip dysplasia and equinus in 13 (40.6%), followed by the appearance of the equinus in 8 (25.0%) patients, and planovalgus in 7 (21.9%) respondents. The appearance of kyphosis is much more common, occurring in 23 (71.9%) respondents. Scoliosis was found in six (18.8%). The results of this study also pointed out that there is a correlation and mutual influence between the presence of pathomorphological substrate of the brain and spinal deformity, type of cerebral palsy and deformity of the upper limbs. Conclusion: The Deformities of the locomotor apparatus in children with cerebral palsy caused by increased muscle tone often occur and influence on the greater degree of disability of these children.