How Does Fetal Acidosis Result in Cerebral Palsy?

Abstract

Cerebral palsy presents enormous challenges to the physical and emotional wellbeing of the affected individual as well as the immediate family. The average lifetime cost per person with cerebral palsy exceeds one million dollars in the United States. While highly dependent on the degree of severity, children severely impaired in cognition, motor skills, hearing, and vision have a markedly shortened life span. Whereas hypoxia- ischemia is considered to be etiologic in fetal/newborn cerebral palsy, the cellular mechanisms by which hypoxemia-induced metabolic acidosis induce neuronal damage are complex and include direct effects of hypoxia, acidosis and perhaps hypercapnia. Therapeutic interventions for the prevention of cerebral palsy in at risk newborns will likely be directed at these putative pathways.