Brainpalsy.com - Helping Parents Combat Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is the name of a group of chronic diseases that affect body movement and muscle coordination. Cerebral palsy can be caused by trauma to one or more specific areas of the brain, most likely to occur sometime between fetal development and childhood. The disorders associated with cerebral palsy are not caused by problems in the muscles or nerves, but by faulty development or damage to motor areas in the brain. This alters the brain’s ability to adequately control movement and posture. The area of the brain where the trauma occurred determine the effects of the disease.

The various forms has cerebral palsy and one of them is the form of spastic diplegia. Spastic diplegia is when both legs are affected by cerebral palsy. A patient may have difficulty walking due to muscle tightness in the hips and legs, causing the legs to turn inward and cross at the knees. This makes the legs to move rigid and uncomfortable walking pace causing a feature known as the scissors gait.

Spastic diplegia cerebral palsy is caused by brain damage in the outer layer of the brain, the cerebral cortex. Spastic diplegia cerebral palsy affects nearly 70 to 80 percent of patients and is the most common form of cerebral palsy. Spastic diplegia cerebral palsy symptoms include increased tone, or tension in a muscle. Normal muscles work in pairs and when a group of muscles contract, the other group relaxes, allowing uninhibited movement in the desired direction.

The complications in the brain-to-nerve-muscle communication prevent the normal level of muscle tension. The muscles affected by spastic diplegia cerebral palsy and is activated together effectively blocking the movement. This gives rise to muscles spastic diplegia cerebral palsy patients to be constantly tense, or spastic.

Cerebral palsy can be classified by how it affects the movement or the number of members involved. These classifications can be combined to describe the conditions as severe spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. In spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, the four limbs are affected, both legs, as well as mild affects weapons are present.

Spastic diplegia cerebral palsy tends to affect a patient’s legs over the arms. Spastic diplegia patients have broader participation of the lower extremities of the upper limb. Patients with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy might be able to walk. Patients with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy is characterized by a crouched walk. Andar analysis and appropriate treatment can correct toe on foot and knees bent, which are common attributes of spastic diplegia.

Individuals with spastic diplegia can be helped by teams of specialized treatment to decide which treatments are best suited for them. Leg braces, walking analysis, botox injections, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, and several other treatments can help manage spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. A specialized treatment team should include a physical therapist, pediatrician, physiatrist, neurosurgeon and a neurologist and orthopedic surgeon who can all aid in decision-making process.