What Is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy is the medical way of defining a group of permanent brain injuries that affects an infant in the womb, during birth or in months following birth. It is a result of damage to brain prior to or shortly after birth and life-long condition that affects the communication between the brain and the muscles, causing a permanent state of uncoordinated movement and posturing. It is a result of episode that causes lack of oxygen to the brain. It is characterized by a disruption of motor skills, with symptoms such as spasticity, paralysis, or seizures. Cerebral palsy is a form of static encephalopathy.

More about cerebral palsy

Cerebral Palsy describes a group of chronic disorders impairing control of movement that appear in the first few years of life and generally do not worsen over time. The term cerebral refers to the brain's two halves, or hemispheres, and palsy describes any disorder that impairs control of body movement. It is a disorder movement and posture, which is apparent in the early years. The damage to the motor part of the brain causes an interruption in the signals that the brain tries to send to the muscles. Adjacent parts of the brain may also be injured and this may lead to poor sight, deafness or other perceptual difficulties. Children with cerebral palsy may also have difficulties in learning. It also affects their muscles and also makes them weak. The motor disorders of cerebral palsy are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, cognition, communication, perception, and/or behavior, and/or by a seizure disorder.

The incidence in developed countries is approximately 2-2.5 per thousand births. It has been suggested that no two persons are alike even if they have the same diagnosis. Cerebral palsy is divided into four major classifications to describe the different movement impairments. These classifications reflect the area of brain damaged. The four classifications are:

(1) Spastic (2) Athetoid (3) Ataxic and (4) Mixed.

Spastic cerebral palsy is further classified by topography, dependent on the region of the body affected. These typography classifications include: (1) hemiplegia in which one side is being more affected than the other (2) diplegia in which the lower body is being more affected than the upper body and (3) quadriplegia where all four limbs affected equally.

Causes of cerebral palsy are unknown. In very few conditions, the actual cause could be infections, malnutrition and significant head injury in very early childhood. All types of cerebral palsy are characterized by abnormal muscle tone, posture, reflexes, or motor development and coordination.