[The design of a population register on cerebral palsy: its application and analysis in Andorra and Navarre]

Cerebral palsy describes a group of developmental and posture disorders, which cause a limitation of activity due to non-progressive damage occurring in the developing brain. A population register facilitates the identification of cerebral palsy cases within a specific geographic population. Its usefulness is recognized in the world literature but in Spain, published databases focus on the treatment or complications of cerebral palsy.

To propose a population register that can be useful in different areas of our environment and to evaluate its validity through its application in two differentiated and geographically delimited health areas.

The registry consists of 124 items divided into seven sections: data on the child filiations, maternal history and parents' information, pregnancy and neonatal period data, diagnoses and classification, neuroimaging tests, therapeutic interventions and others. Patients attended in external consultations in Navarre and Andorra were included.

In the register, 53 patients (52.8% females) were evaluated. 56.5% were premature. Spastic cerebral palsy is the most frequent presentation. 42% have associated epilepsy.

The use of population registers allows a better knowledge of cerebral palsy as well as the evaluation and development of prevention strategies and optimization of care resources with objective data. It is necessary to generalize the use of this type of records in our environment.