RESUMO
AIM: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a persistent motor disorder that appears before the patient is 3 years old due to a nonprogressive interference in the brain's development which takes place before the central nervous system growth is complete. Causes of this have been studied, and one that has been proposed for spastic hemiparesis CP is the Leiden mutation of V factor coagulation. We want to know whether this mutation can cause CP in our population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We carried out a study of cases and controls with 94 patients with spastic hemiparesis CP and 120 controls as well as their mothers with their controls. RESULTS: None of the patients, their mothers, or controls had the Leiden mutation; however, other risk factors were significant: hypoxia odds ratio (OR) 7.189 (2.546, 20.302) p=0.0001, smoking OR 16.621 (2.945, 93.818) p=0.001, maternal infections (urinary or vaginal) OR 7.040 (2.952, 16.789) p=0.0001, weeks of gestation OR 0.866 (0.7750, 0.999) p=0.048, and maternal age OR 1.114 (1.031, 1.204) p=0.006. CONCLUSION: Leiden mutation of factor V is not an important factor for our Mexican mestizo population; however, there are other important perinatal risk factors.