What Type of Cerebral Palsy Surgery Does My Child Need?

A: Your child may need cerebral palsy (CP) surgery, depending on a few factors. These include:

The severity of your child’s cerebral palsy and impairments
Functional concerns
Their age
Their responses to other types of treatment
Any comorbidities
The goals for their treatment

On this page, we’ll break down the common types of cerebral palsy surgery and their risks and benefits for children with CP.

Was your child’s CP preventable?

In some cases, cerebral palsy is the result of a preventable injury at birth. If your child had a traumatic birth, consider contacting our cerebral palsy lawyers to see if you have a case.

Why Would A Child Need Cerebral Palsy Surgery?

Cerebral palsy is a group of motor disorders that can impact children in various ways, depending on the severity of their CP and other impairments that they may have. Their physician may recommend surgery if the child isn’t responding well to other non-invasive treatments, or if surgery can significantly improve their symptoms and functioning.

No surgical intervention can cure cerebral palsy, but depending on what your child’s physician recommends, certain types of surgery can help alleviate these symptoms and promote a better quality of life for your child.

A few cerebral palsy symptoms that surgery may address are:

Difficulty with chewing or swallowing food (e.g. dysphagia)
Increased muscle tone that causes spasticity (stiffness) or dystonia (involuntary movement)
Pain and discomfort
Poor posture and balance
Vision and hearing impairments

These surgical interventions typically require a great deal of follow-up therapy and care in order for the child to get the most benefit. It’s important to consider surgery as only one part of a larger, comprehensive treatment plan. Parents should also consider and discuss their concerns and goals for surgery with their child and physician in order to weigh the risks and benefits.

Types of Cerebral Palsy Surgery For Children

Intrathecal Baclofen Pump Insertion

Baclofen is a common muscle relaxant used to treat spasticity in children with CP. It’s typically administered by oral tablet, but an intrathecal pump is sometimes more advantageous because it delivers the medication straight to the patient’s spinal cord at a lower dose. The pump is surgically–implanted and serves to administer a continuous dose of baclofen.

Intrathecal baclofen is typically used for children who have severe spasticity, significant side effects from oral anti-spasticity drugs, or who experience continuous and intense spasticity even on the strongest oral dose. It typically lasts for five years before it needs to be replaced with a new one.

A baclofen pump may minimize side effects like dizziness, nausea, and confusion, but it’s important to discuss its risks, as well as post-operative management of the pump with your physician. It’s also important to keep in mind that baclofen, like other surgical interventions for cerebral palsy, is not a cure and may not completely resolve your child’s spasticity.

Neurosurgery

Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy

While baclofen can relax muscles that cause spasticity, neurosurgery like selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) can eliminate the nerves in the lower spinal cord that cause spasticity. These nerves send and receive sensory information to and from the brain which affect the limbs and torso. This procedure can take several hours and requires rigorous rehabilitation and therapy afterwards.

The two main types of patients that might benefit from this surgery are:

Children with cerebral palsy who are limited by spasticity, but have a relatively high degree of independent movement. Younger children are great candidates for this surgery because they can relearn appropriate patterns for movement through rehabilitation.
People with cerebral palsy who have severe physical impairment, experience spasticity, and cannot move independently. In these cases, surgery may help with the patient’s overall discomfort and stability. It can also improve the ease and comfort of their general care, such as bathing.

Orthopedic Surgery

Hip Muscle Release

Children with spastic cerebral palsy commonly develop hip disorders and complications, such as hip subluxation. This occurs when the femur (thigh) bone is pulled away from its socket as a result of increased tension in the muscles and tendons. It can cause pain, inhibit movement and stability, and cause dislocation of the femur if it’s not treated.

A surgery called a hip muscle release serves to lengthen or “release” the muscle tendons. This can improve function and potentially improve the child’s gait.

Sometimes, CP children’s normal growth patterns are severely affected and can lead to bone deformities. In those cases, muscle and tendon surgery may not be enough to address the issue. Bone and joint procedures such as osteotomy may be considered.

Gastroenterology Surgery

Some cases of cerebral palsy affect muscles in the neck, mouth, and chin. In these cases, chewing and swallowing food is a challenge and can pose risks like choking or aspiration (inhaling food). It can also result in a larger host of problems from not getting adequate nutrition.

Surgical interventions include a nasogastric tube inserted through the nostril, down the throat, and into the stomach. An alternative method is a gastronomy tube (G-tube) which is inserted directly into the stomach.

Parents typically will meet with their child’s care team, including a dietician, to discuss this procedure and its risks and benefits. Proper care and instructions for tube feeding should be explained thoroughly to parents to prevent any errors.

Did your child require surgery for their cerebral palsy?

If your child’s cerebral palsy was preventable, our team can investigate your case and provide you with your legal options and resources.

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Hearing Correction Surgery

Some children with cerebral palsy also have hearing impairments. In cases where devices like a hearing aid cannot assist them, the following surgeries may improve their hearing ability:

Cochlear implant: an electronic device implanted in part of the skull that transmits sound directly to the nerve that controls hearing
Stapedectomy: performed to remove the stape, a bone inside the ear that sends sound waves. If the stape is damaged, a stapedectomy replaces the bone with a device.

Vision Correction Surgery

There are a few different types of vision impairments associated with cerebral palsy. Strabismus is an ocular condition where the eyes look in different directions. It’s most common in children with cerebral palsy (over 55%), especially in children with spastic diplegia. Strabismus surgery may help to align their vision, but non-surgical treatments such as glasses with prisms can also help correct the issue.

How Can A Lawyer Help?

As a parent or caregiver, it can be immensely difficult to navigate your child’s condition, especially without the proper finances, support, or other resources. This is especially true if you are juggling a full-time job to support your family on top of handling your child’s unique needs and care. A lawyer can not only find out if your child’s condition was preventable, but fight for the finances, resources, and justice your child deserves for their lifetime care. That means not only can you have peace of mind knowing your child gets what they need now, but even after you are gone.

It can be intimidating to think of contacting a law firm or pursuing a lawsuit, but working with a firm that handles cerebral palsy cases means you are in the right hands of professionals who understand the challenges you’re facing and have worked with families like yours before.

Contact ABC Law Centers: Cerebral Palsy Lawyers

ABC Law Centers was founded in 1997 to focus only on birth injuries, such as cerebral palsy. For decades, we’ve worked with parents in your situation and helped fight for their child’s justice and lifetime compensation so that they have the opportunity to thrive like other children.

Our staff only handles birth injury, meaning we have the right skills and resources to recover a favorable settlement or verdict for your family. In addition, we have the time to focus on each individual case and devote our support to every family.

Contact us today for a free consultation. In fact, you pay nothing unless we win your case. You are also not obligated to work with our firm if you choose to contact us, but our team is happy to listen to your story and provide you with your legal options regardless.

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Dealing with a birth injury diagnosis can be difficult, but our attorneys can help. The ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers team focuses exclusively on birth injury and are dedicated to earning justice for families like yours.

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