Low Apgar Score at Birth Associated with a Later Diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy

A low vitality score, better known as an Apgar score, at birth is a strong predictor of a later diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy according to a new study published on bmj.com. The authors learned that children with an Apgar score of less than 3 at birth had a 100 times more likely chance of developing cerebral palsy than those with an Apgar score of 10. The correlation between a low Apgar and cerebral palsy was highest in children with normal birth weight and modest in children with low birth weight.

The study measured these correlations in more then a half million Norwegian children born between 1986 and 1995. Of those children almost 2 in 1000 were given the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy before they reached the age of 5.

The most important conclusion to be drawn from this data is that Cerebral Palsy is closely related to factors that also effect infant vitality, something that has been strongly suspected in medicine for years. Low Apgar scores can be indicitive of a brain injury that has occured at the time of birth.

At Goldberg & Goldberg we have been representing children with traumatic brain injuries caused at the time of birth for over forty years. If you suspect that a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice at the time of birth and that malpractice has caused a brain injury, please do not hesitate to call us for a free consultation.