Authors' objectives: The authors appear to have studied the effects of intrathecal baclofen (ITB) on spastic and dystonic cerebral palsy (CP).

[No CRD Summary available December 2006.]

CRD commentary: The authors did not set out a clear objective at the beginning of the review, and the inclusion criteria were only defined clearly in terms of the participants and intervention. Only one database was searched, which suggests that relevant studies might have been missed. It was unclear whether any language restrictions were applied to the search, and there appears to have been no attempt to assess publication bias. The authors did not provide any details of how the study selection, data extraction or quality assessment processes were performed. This makes it difficult to assess the possible impact of bias on the results, which can arise if these processes are flawed. Relevant details of the studies were tabulated. The narrative synthesis of the results was appropriate given the clinical differences between the studies. The authors' cautious conclusions were appropriate for the evidence presented; however, additional relevant studies might have been missed.