[Child neurology in a regional hospital]

During the period from 25 October 1988 to 13 June 1989, 624 (13.9%) of the 4,464 outpatients examined in the pediatric department, Haukeland hospital, had neurological problems. In 1986 730 (19.1%) of the 3,829 patients admitted to the pediatric department of nerological disorders. 41 (11%) of the 374 patients admitted to the department of neonatology in 1986 had disorders of the central nervous system (infections excepted). About 40% of the neurological patients suffered from convulsive disorders. Other groups of disorders were developmental retardation, learning disorders, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, hyperactivity, headache, infections and parainfectious diseases, intracranial tumours, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, chromosomal disorders, metabolic diseases, various syndromes and malformations, neuromuscular disorders, functional symptoms and neonatal neurological problems. The practice of child neurology is timeconsuming. The paediatric neurologist must be acquainted with children's developmental problems and the patterns of neurological symptoms seen in the various age groups. Assembling children with neurological disorders in a small, special department might improve the treatment of these patients considerably.