The changing panorama of cerebral palsy in Sweden 1954-1970. III. The importance of foetal deprivation of supply.

From record data derived from an unselected series of 560 Swedish cases of cerebral palsy, born in 1954-70, the significance of prenatal factors associated with materno-foetal vascular insufficiency causing foetal deprivation of supply (FDS) was investigated. Cerebral palsied children were found to have, on an average, retarded intrauterine growth when compared with a normal population. The incidence of bleeding during pregnancy, maternal toxaemia and multiple pregnancies were significantly increased (p less than 0.001). The incidence of the prenatal factors in question had remained unchanged through the years 1954-70. An additive interplay between factors of FDS and asphyxia/cerebral haemorrhage was revealed. As a whole the findings support the conclusion that FDS plays a major role in the pathogenesis of cerebral palsy today, particularly among the multihandicapped.