This resource from the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine explores the adult patient with cerebral palsy (CP), who faces a difficult situation due to a lack of preventative or primary medical or surgical care. The impetus is on providers, encouraging specialisation and access to care through continuity clinics and consistent providers. Spine and hip pathology are a primary consideration. New loss of function or clinical deterioration should prompt screening for myelopathy or hydrocephalus as a cause.

In the authors’ experience, a SEMLS approach is safe, with an expected prolonged rehabilitation course. Lever arm dysfunction is primarily addressed with femoral derotation or foot reconstruction. Foot deformities are the most commonly surgically addressed sites for adults with CP.

It is critical that more research into the long-term outcomes of these surgeries, as well as a more systematic approach to the general and musculoskeletal assessment and treatment of adults with CP, is needed as a focus for future research.