Several factors such as nutritional deficiencies, use of antiepileptic drugs can lead alterations in the hematologic status of children with cerebral palsy (CP). This issue may increase the risk of peroperative hematologic complications in these children. We aimed to evaluate the preoperative routine hematologic tests of CP patients to clarify such peroperative risks.

Hemoglobin (HGB), hemotocrit (HTC), red blood cell count (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCHB), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red cell distribution width (RDW), white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PLT), phrothrombine time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and plasma fibrinogen concentration (FIB) of 62 consecutive CP patients (28 girls, 34 boys) whose mean age was 8.8 years (2–16) were retrospectively compared with the ones of 130 consecutive patients (64 girls, 66 boys) whose mean age was 9.2 (2–16) years and who did not have any skeletal, cranial, thoracic, abdominal or major soft tissue injury, plus any other infectious, metabolic, hematologic or malign tumoral disorder. None of the patients had any other surgical intervention within the last 12 months and all patients underwent an orthopaedic intervention under general anesthesia.

CP and control groups were similar concerning age (P=0.512) and gender (P=0.598). We observed similar mean values between CP and control groups, regarding HGB (P=0.147), HTC (P=0.189), RBC (P=0.598), MCV (P=0.541), MCHB (P=0.389), MCHC (P=0.450), RDW (P=0.072), WBC (P=0.262), PLT (P=0.634), PT (P=0.060), APTT (P=0.254) and FIB (P=0.722). In the CP group, we found no difference between GMFCS I and II level and GMFCS III and IV level patients regarding HGB (P=0.061), HTC (P=0.050), RBC (P=0.598), MCV (P=0.541), MCHB (P=0.389), MCHC (P=0.450), RDW (P=0.072), WBC (P=0.568), PLT (P=0.453), PT (P=0.414), APTT (P=0.203) and FIB (P=0.722).

We can conclude that, CP patients, treated in the Orthopaedics clinics, have similar preoperative routine hematologic tests, with the ones of other orthopaedic patients. Therefore, CP patients, undergoing orthopaedic interventions, carry similar peroperative hematologic risks like other orthopaedic patients. Besides, walking ability of CP patients does not infiuence the preoperative routine hematologic tests.