Ocular Refractive Characteristics in Cerebral Palsy

This study was undertaken because of the clinical impression that ocular refractive errors in cerebral palsied children were different from those of normal children and of children with neuromuscular handicaps other than cerebral palsy. A study of a limited number of patients warrants some preliminary observations.

Cerebral palsy may be subdivided clinically into 3 types. The largest group (about 60%) is spastic, characterized by the presence of a stretch reflex and the symptoms and signs of "upper motor neuron lesions presumably due to involvement of t[ill] "pyramidal tracts." The second group (about 35%) is dyskinetic; these patients exhibit an abnormal amount and type of motion, presumably due to pathology in the "extrapyramidal system." The majority of this group have athetosis, and the remainder exhibit extrapyramidal rigidity, tremor, or other types of "extrapyramidal" dyskinesi [ill] The third and smallest group (about 5%) is ataxic; these patients have symptoms characteristic of cerebellar