Cerebral palsy-are the definitions of the Gross Motor Functional Classification System too broad?

摘要

The term 'cerebral palsy' (CP) describes nonprogressive disorders that affect the development of movement and posture, and covers a wide range of clinical presentations and activity limitations. It is therefore often helpful to classify children with CP into subtypes, for example when evaluating the efficacy of new treatments. The recently developed 5-level Gross Motor Functional Classification System (GMFCS) differentiates children with CP by their level of functional mobility. The usefulness of this classification system might be limited, however, because it does not take into account the distributional pattern of affected limbs (e.g. hemiplegia versus diplegia).