Cerebral Palsy Definition

What Is Cerebral Palsy Definition, Introduction And Overview?

Cerebral palsy can be defined as a group of permanent disorder of movement & posture due to non-progressive brain insult in developing foetus & infant brain. It primarily affects body movement, posture, balance, coordination of muscle & motor skill.  The motor problem is often accompanied with a problem in sensation, perception, cognition, speech, hearing, vision, recurrent chest infection, oromotor dysfunction, epilepsy etc.

According to cerebral palsy definition, It is a group of neuromotor disorder which affect person & their family for whole life. Motor disability comprises of difficulty in sitting, crawling, standing & walking along with a problem in balance. Most of the time etiology of brain insult is unknown. Although it occurs because of non-progressive brain damage but disability can progress, remain stable or regress based on the intervention and environmental factor.

Cerebral Palsy Types

Children with cerebral palsy can present in a variety of manner in terms of severity, extent of involvement & type of movement disorder. There are many pediatricians, neurologist, and therapist who deal with different types of CP patients. Most of the time they classified cerebral palsy in four different types of cerebral palsy. According to movement disorder, they can present as the spastic or dyskinetic variety of cerebral palsy.  Spastic cerebral palsy is a most common type of CP disorder in which 70 to 80% children affected by Spastic CP. Sometimes children can have mixed presentation. Dyskinetic commonly affects the whole body except in focal dystonia. Spastic variety can affect one limb (monoplegia), one side of the body (hemiplegic), both lower limb (diplegic), both lower limb & one upper limb (triplegic ), all four limb (quadriplegic)

Cerebral Palsy Symptoms

There are various symptoms of cerebral palsy which are given as below:

• Varieties in muscle tone, for example, being either too firm or excessively floppy
• Hardened muscles and misrepresented reflexes (spasticity)
• Hardened muscles with ordinary reflexes (unbending nature)
• Absence of muscle coordination (ataxia)
• Tremors or automatic developments
• Moderate, squirming developments (athetosis)
• Deferrals in achieving engine aptitudes points of reference, for example, pushing up on arms, sitting up alone or creeping
• Favoring one side of the body, for example, coming to with just a single hand or dragging a leg while slithering
• Trouble strolling, for example, strolling on toes, a hunkered step, a scissors-like stride with knees crossing, a wide walk or an awry walk
• Extreme dribbling or issues with gulping
• Trouble with sucking or eating
• Deferrals in discourse improvement or trouble talking
• Trouble with exact movements, for example, getting a colored pencil or spoon
• Seizures

Cerebral Palsy Causes

Mutations, maternal infections, fetal stroke, infant infections, traumatic head injury, Lack of oxygen are some causes of cerebral palsy. Doctors or CP specialist are still not able to figure the exact cause of this brain damage. They just go through medical reports to find the causes of cerebral palsy and treat them for better management in CP condition.  Know more about cerebral palsy causes in infants and adults.

Cerebral Palsy Risk Factors

German measles(rubella viral infection), chickenpox, cytomegalovirus, herpes, toxoplasmosis, syphilis, exposure to toxins, Zika virus infection, and some other conditions are some cerebral palsy risk factors during pregnancy in cerebral palsy babies depending upon the maternal health.

Bacterial meningitis, viral encephalitis, severe or untreated jaundice etc. are CP risk factors in CP newborn depending on the infant illness.

Breech births, Complicated labor, and delivery, Low birth weight, Multiple babies, Premature birth, Rh blood type incompatibility between mother and child are some common risk factors depending on the pregnancy and birth factors.

Cerebral Palsy Complications

Weakness in muscle, muscle stiffness, poor coordination between brain and muscles, contracture, malnutrition, mental health conditions, lung disease, neurological conditions, Osteoarthritis, Osteopenia, Eye muscle imbalance etc. are some CP complications in CP babies. Know more about cerebral palsy complications.

Cerebral Palsy Treatment