[The construction of cerebral palsy definition: a historical journey to the present].

Introduction: The definition of cerebral palsy (CP) has been difficult over the years mainly because of the large number of manifestations and concomitant diseases that can occur, taking unique characteristics in each subject that suffers.

Method: This work seeks to reconstruct the historical course of cerebral palsy in order to relate it to the current challenges that arise in the area of public health for its approach. For this, a bibliographic review work was carried out in digital databases based on keywords. A literature search was performed using the data bases of MEDLINE (PubMed), SCOPUS, LILACS and Google Scholar. Texts were included in both English and Spanish.

Results: It describes in the work different definitions that the PC takes from the nineteenth century to its current international definition agreed in 2005. More than 150 years took a long time to establish a definition demonstrating the complexity involved. The contributions of the International Classification of Functionality and Health (CIF) currently bring new challenges in the treatment.

Conclusions: Knowing the history of the PC definition by relating it to changes in the disability paradigm allows us to analyze the complexity of the situation and calls for reflection on our health practices.