Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics of children with cerebral palsy (CP) who applied to physical medicine and rehabilitation outpatient clinic.
 

Materials and Methods: Data of the 202 cases who had reffered to our outpatient clinic between December 2005 and June 2007 was evaluated retrospectively.
 

Results: Ninety-four of the cases were girls and 108 were boys. Their mean age was 6.98 years (1-33 years). The distribution of cerebral palsy types was as follows: diplegia 34% (n:69), tetraplegia 32% (n:66), hemiplegia 26% (n:53), monoplegia 4.5% (n:9), dyskinetic %1 (n:2) and mixed type 1.4% (n:3). CP severity, assessed with the Gross Motor Functional Classification System (GMFCS),  was distributed as follows: level 1 (9.9%), level 2 (17.8%), level 3 (20.8%), level 4 (22.8%), level 5 (8.7%). The most frequently encountered prenatal risk factor was consanguineous marriage - 25% (n=51), perinatal risk factors were low birth weight - 37.1% (n=75) and premature birth - 35% (n=72), natal risk factor was forced birth - 14.9% (n=30), postnatal risk factor was convulsion - 9.9% (n=20), and 14.9% (n=30) were unclassified. 55.4% of the children had speech disorder, 50.4% had mental retardation, 35.6% had visual impairment, 5.9% had epilepsy. Eighty-six of the cases who applied to the clinic were using orthesis. New orthesis were prescribed to 74 patients, botulinum toxin–A injection were performed in 11 cases and 12 of them were referred for surgery.
 

Conclusion: Perinatal risk factors were the most frequently seen when  assessing the etiologic factors in CP. Better health conditions will decrease the prevalence of CP by minimizing prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal damage. Prenatal care should be improved, high-risk babies should be followed up closely and the number of neonatal intensive care units should be increased.