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An Overview of Cerebral Palsy

By Joe Devine

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Published: 04Mar2008
Word count: 476
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Cerebral Palsy is an umbrella term that encompasses a group of non-progressive, non-contagious conditions that cause physical disability in human development. The cerebral part refers to the affected part of the brain, generally the cerebrum. Palsy is the disorder of movement. The affected centers have not been perfectly localized and the disease most likely involves connections between the cortex and other portions of the brain.

Cerebral palsy can occur during pregnancy (75% or so of cases), after birth and up to age 3(roughly 15% of cases), and during birth (around 5% of cases). Of all the cases of cerebral palsy, between 40 and 50% of them are cases involving babies that are born prematurely.

Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive disorder which means that brain damage does not get worse as time goes on. Despite this, there are secondary orthopedic difficulties that often occur. There is no known cure for the condition. Medical intervention is limited to the treatment and the prevention of complications possible from this condition. These include osteoporosis and arthritis occurring at a younger age in adults born with cerebral palsy.

There has been a slight increase in the occurrence of cerebral palsy. The majority of people feel that this is attributable to low birth weight babies surviving due to improved neo-natal care. While this is good, babies with a low birth weight, who are commonly premature as well, are more susceptible to Cerebral Palsy.

Cerebral Palsy has four major classifications. These four classifications are spastic, athetoid/diskinetic, ataxic, and mixed. The classifications are named based on the area of the brain that is damaged.

Spastic Cerebral Palsy is the most common form. It is the named classification in 70-80% of all cases. It involves damage to the motor cortex of the brain. After the condition is named Spastic, it is further classified based on the area of the body that has been affected.

Ataxic is a very uncommon form of Cerebral Palsy. It occurs in at most 10% of all cases. This version involves damage to the cerebellum. Motor skills like writing, typing, or using scissors are commonly affected. Also, balance is a problem as well.

Athetoid, or dyskinetic, occurs second most frequently after Spastic. It involves problems with muscle tone. People with this version have problems holding themselves in an upright, steady position for sitting or walking. They often show involuntary motions and may not be able to grasp objects.

There are 10,000 new cases of Cerebral Palsy in the United States each year. This is true even following the advances in pregnancy care. This is because of the advances made in areas related to the care of premature babies. The causes of Cerebral Palsy are commonly asphyxia, hypoxia of the brain, birth trauma, premature birth, and illness of the mother during pregnancy such as strep.

Joe Devine For more information visit http://www.habush.com .

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