Multiple minor malformations as a marker for prenatal etiology of cerebral palsy.

A consecutive series of 137 patients with cerebral palsy living in institutions and aged between 18 and 30 years was examined for minor malformations, using a modified Weighted Anomaly Score. After examination, the patients were divided into two groups, based on whether their cerebral palsy was prenatal or postnatal in onset. A further subset of prenatal-onset patients with unidentified etiology was also analysed. Both the prenatal group with known etiology and the subgroup with unknown etiology had significantly more minor malformations than the postnatal group. These results suggest that multiple minor malformations may indicate prenatal etiology of cerebral palsy.