The Pattern of Neurological Disabilities in Children seen at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Summary: One hundred and eighty-one children with well established neurological deficits were seen in the paediatric neurology clinic of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, during a period of three and a half years. Cerebral palsy (39.8%), paralytic poliomyelitis (20.4%) and epilepsies (16.6%) were the major handicaps. Speech impairment, Down's syndrome (10.5% each) and deafness (2.2%) were the other important causes of disability. Eighty-eighty (48.6%) of the 181 patients were mentally retarded and cerebral palsy constituted the vast majority of these (83.3%). Infections like poliomyelitis and meningitis and deleterious perinatal events such as birth asphyxia and neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia, were the major causative factors in many of the patients. About 80% of the known causes of these disabilities can be prevented through improvement in maternal and child health services and immuni zation. There is also a great need for health education and more day-care and residential centres for the rehabilitation of handicapped children.