Cerebral palsy (CP) describes movement and posture disorders that developg after nonepisodic and nonprogressive lesion of the immature brain. Its frequency has increased, especially in the last 20 years, due to success in decreasing mortality and morbidity of the premature newborn. Twenty-five boy and 15 girl CP patients, aged 7.5 months to 15 years, were enrolled in the study. They were classified according to ability to perform normal activity and degree of severity. We determined ophthalmologic problems in 90% of the patients. Of these, 62.5% had refraction problem, 60% had strabismus, 22.5% had optic disc problems, 5% had nystagmus and 32.5% had amblyoia. Visual evoked potential responses were abnormal in 37.5% of the patients, and cranial radiologic examinations determined visual pathway lesions in 50%. Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy was the major (45%) etiologic factor; we could not determine any etiology in 20% of the patients. Of the CP patients, 75% had spastic type, 5% ataxic type, 5% hypotonic type and 15% mixed cerebral palsy. A high rate of visual problems were determined in the patients with cerebral palsy. Periodic ophthalmologic examinations, visual evoked potentials and cranial radiologic examinations are useful tests for clinical follow-up of these patients.

Keywords: serebral palsi, göz, spastisite, uyarılmış potansiyaller, cerebral palsy, eye, spasticity, evoked potentials