Results of Damped-rotation Tests in Brain Damaged Infants and Children

Abstract

We studied the relation between vestibular functions and neurological diagnosis in 477 brain damaged infants and children who had delayed gross motor functions. They were divided into two groups. Group 1 consisted of 319 infants with cerebral palsy in the first year of life, and Group 2 consisted of 158 brain damaged children up to 4 years of age. The damped-rotation test was used to evaluate vestibular function and the numbers of perrotatory nystagmus were measured. In Group 1 there were 24 infants with no vestibular responses, including two who were deaf. Five of those in Group 1 showed no responses at the first year of life but normal responses as they developed. In Group 2, all had normal vestibular responses. These results show that the incidence of no vestibular response is very high in infants with spastic cerfebral palsy.

Key Words:

• vestibular function
• spastic cerebral palsy
• gross motor function
• perrotatory nystagmus